![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Link to Eternity-Verse 20 Part 1
Previously in Eternity-verse 20
The Doctor noticed Jack shudder and press back in his seat, fingering the weight of his main blaster in his pocket.
"Jack?" He asked softly, ignoring the soldiers in the front seat.
"This place feels horrible. There is nothing alive here outside of these vehicles."
"We know that, its why we're here."
"No, love, NOTHING. No people, no animals, no insects and no birds. Nothing," Jack said, turning golden eyes on his mate,
And now our tale continues************************************
"Well, that can't be good," The Doctor sighed, squeezing Jack's arm lightly.
"Pull back Jack, we don't want them seeing what you can do unless there's no other options," he whispered.
Jack closed his eyes and took a deep breath, getting the suddenly very skittish hunter within him under control. When he opened his eyes again, the irises were still haloed with a thin thread of gold, but the pupils were round once more, and the Doctor didn't think anyone would notice the remaining gold.
"Good," the Doctor said quietly, stroking a soothing hand over Jack's forearm.
The jeeps stopped beside an abandoned police car, its doors hanging open, the radio hanging out onto the road. Everyone got out of the cars and looked at the police car.
"Is that blood?" Turlough asked, pointing at some small brown spots on the road on the drivers side of the car.
"Yes," Jack replied, the scent of human blood unmistakable.
"Perhaps you should leave that for our labs to determine." Alistair said, gesturing one of his men to take a sample of the specks.
"No need." Five waved his sonic screwdriver over the patches.
"He's right, it reads as human blood."
"But not enough of it to indicate they were dead when they were taken," one of the soldiers said hopefully.
"Unless all the blood was vaporized." Jack pointed out, but even as he said it, he knew it hadn't happened. There was no smell of burnt flesh, or blood, and no scent of ozone that would indicate a disrupter had been used.
"Come on, we need to check around. Split into two groups."
"No!" Both Doctors exclaimed in unison, cutting over Alistair.
"What?"
"Whatever it is, it can pick off smaller groups. If we all stay together, then at least we will all find out if there is a problem at the same time," Five said.
"Fine. So which way do you suggest we go Doctor?" Alistair asked.
The two Doctors looked at each other, and Five shrugged to indicate he had no preference. Nothing was showing up on the sensors he had picked up. Jack didn't wait for them to decide, something was pulling him to the far edge of the village. He started walking, slow enough for the others to catch up, but fast enough to make it clear he wouldn't be changing course.
It only took five minutes to reach the other side of the village, and there was nothing in sight when they got there.
"Jack?"
"Look at the woods, outside the village," Jack said to his mate.
"Look like any old woods to me," Turlough said disdainfully, he wasn't fond of woods.
"Exactly like any old woods, birds flying, insects, and there are a couple of rabbits over there." Ten said slowly.
"But nothing at all alive here in the village, less than 30 feet away. " Jack finished. His eyes tracked a bird that was flying in the direction of the village, and as soon as it crossed the boundary of the village, it vanished in a flare of white light.
"Disintegrated." One of the men suggested, alarmed.
"No, teleported," Jack corrected him, recognizing the light from long familiarity.
"But why?" Alistair asked.
"And why haven't we been teleported?" Five added.
"If it's on automatic, maybe we're too big. Maybe whoever set up the teleport prefers to catch bigger game personally," Jack suggested.
"Let's keep checking," Alistair said, shouldering his rifle.
"Head for the center of the village. If the teleport is covering the entire village, it would make more sense for it to be central." Jack suggested.
"Well, I have no better ideas." Alistair conceded with a shrug, gesturing to his men to head into the center of the village.
The central point was the church hall, and they moved inside cautiously, the soldiers spreading out to cover doors and windows, while the others looked around.
"What's that?" Turlough was pointing up to the balcony that ran around two sides of the hall. There was a shimmer just visible over the corner of the balcony.
"Looks like a force field. Well done Turlough. Let's go and check it out," Five said, starting off to look for the stairs.
They went up to the balcony, and Jack drifted over to look through the high window as the Doctors started to examine the force field covering the small, blinking device generating the teleport. Jack saw a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye and turned his head sharply to look. There was nothing moving now, but he knew he hadn't imagined it. He leaned over the railing.
"Anyone see anything moving out there?" He called down.
"Nothing Captain, why?" Alistair called back as all his men shook their heads negatively.
"Something's moving out there, it may be whoever set the teleport and force field up."
"We'll stay alert."
Jack paced along the balcony, checking every window he passed for further signs of movement, but everything appeared still again. He glance over to where the others were still crouched over the force field, just in time to see it go down.
"Well, that’s one thing taken care of, now we just have to turn the teleport off," Five said, reaching for the off button.
"No." Jack moved fast to catch his hand, but was too late.
"In the event they didn't know we were in the village, or our exact location, you just gave them both." Jack growled.
"Ah." Five blushed, that hadn't occurred to him.
"We should move then, right?" Turlough asked.
"Best not. At least this place is defensible, better than being caught in the open.” Alistair called up.
Jack decided not to point out the obvious, if these people, whoever they were, could teleport things out, then they could teleport them in, there was nowhere for them to hide now that their presence had been announced.
“Everyone should come down here, we need to make sure the doors and windows are secure.” Alistair called up, and the others started down. Jack ignored the order, continuing to pace the balcony.
“Come on Jack,” the Doctor said, turning to look back at his lover. Jack glanced at him briefly and shook his head.
“I can keep watch better from the roof,” Jack told him, pointing at a ladder and hatch.
“You’ll have no back up if you’re up there.”
“I’ll be fine, go on.”
The Doctor headed down as Jack started up the ladder to the roof.
“Where is Captain Harkness?” Alistair asked, seeing him come down alone.
“Heading up the roof as lookout,” The Doctor replied shortly, heading over to help secure the doors and windows.
Jack crouched on the roof, fully settled into his hunters senses now, his sharp golden eyes picking out dark figures moving cautiously among the houses. They were closing in on the hall quickly, and as they got closer, he could smell acrid hints of alien blood filtering through the air. They were being cautious because some of them had been hurt by the armed soldiers, he realized. They were edging the square now, hovering on the outskirts of the open space.
One of them spotted him, and he flattened himself against the roof as a laser beam scored the stonework. He put his head up again, trying to identify them, and a laser beam seared his shoulder. He growled, pulling his blaster with his uninjured arm and firing a warning shot, making them duck back into cover. Let them worry about that, he sneered to himself as he rolled back to the hatch, let them worry about what these humans were armed with. It would hold them off for a while, anyway.
He climbed down the ladder one handed, the pain along with the muscle and nerve damage making his injured arm unusable.
“Brigadier, who are the best marksmen of the men you have here?” He asked as soon as he hit the bottom of the stairs, he felt dizzy, and knew the odds were pretty good he would pass out before too much longer.
Alistair and the Doctors turned to the sound of his voice, and Ten hurried forward with a wordless exclamation, catching Jack as his knees gave out. Jack rested his head on his lovers shoulder for a moment, then looked up at him.
“Make sure the marksmen have my blasters, and know how to use them,” he told his lover.
“How many are you carrying?”
“Three, main one, small of my back, and ankle. Surrounded out there, but they may think twice about trying to get in here, I took a pot shot after they shot me, so they know we have advanced weaponry,” Jack said. There were black spots dancing in front of his eyes now, and his blood was pounding in his ears. The last thing he was able to focus on as unconsciousness took him was his lovers worried brown eyes.
The Doctor lowered his unconscious mate to the floor and took his coat off, spreading it over Jack and smoothing his hair. He efficiently disarmed Jack, but stayed at his side, reluctant to leave him.
“Go, I’ll watch him.” He hadn’t heard Turlough coming up behind him, and the young Trion gently shooed him away, already pulling off his blazer to put under Jack’s head.
“Thanks,” the Doctor said. He picked up the blasters, and went quickly to where Alistair was standing.
“Where are your marksmen Alistair?”
He called three men over, and stepped back to let the Doctor talk to them.
“Right, a quick lesson in using these weapons,” the Doctor said, quickly demonstrating how they worked.
“If it does come down to having to fight, don’t fire unless you are sure you have a clear shot, and make every shot count. The power packs, especially in the smaller ones, can drain fairly rapidly. One last thing, these belong to Jack, and he will want them back, so look after them, please,” he finished showing them how to operate the blasters, made sure they were all locked on their basic point and shoot mode, and sent them off.
“How is Captain Harkness?” Alistair asked when the Doctor was done.
“He’s been better, but then again, he has also been a lot worst. It’s a fairly clean burn, he’ll be OK,” the Doctor said with a soft sigh, leaning against the wall to look out of the nearest window.
“He said we’re surrounded.”
“What do you think they want with all the people, and the wildlife, they have taken from here?”
“I shudder to imagine Alistair, I just hope we can get the missing people back unharmed.”
He looked up as his younger counterpart came over to join them.
“Sensors show they are starting to move in,” he said without preamble.
“They would, once they figured out Jack wasn’t on the roof anymore,” Ten said, leaning his head back against the cool stones of the wall.
“I can send one of the lads you just armed up to the roof, if you think it would help.” Alistair suggested.
“Not worth the risk. Did your sensors show how many of them are out there?”
“Twenty of them.”
There was a flare of light in the middle of the room, and a dozen men in black jumpsuits appeared. The leather jerkins they wore bristling with knives and unidentified weapons, and they all had long greasy hair, and most had equally greasy beards. Pirates, the Doctors realized as the invaders fired with their stun weapons. They had teleported in and opened fire so fast that the soldiers, all focused on any sign of incursion from outside, were unconscious before they even registered the invaders presence.
The two Doctors were of course the first to regain consciousness, they sat up and looked around curiously. They were with Alistair and the others, in a room that was obviously a cell, the only person who was missing was Jack, Ten realized in alarm. He reached out desperately along the link he shared for his mate, and hit warm affection.
*Don’t panic love, I’m not far away* Jack’s telepathic voice was gentle and soothing.
*Where are you?*
*Playing possum in their medical bay. They had to repair the merchandise you know*
*What?*
*I heard them talking. Everyone who is fit and healthy is going to the slave markets, anyone particularly attractive is going to an entirely different type of slave market.*
*What about people who are too old, or infirm to sell as slaves?*
*You don’t want to know Doctor*
*Jack, tell me*
*Put it this way, don’t eat anything, you don’t know who its been*
*WHAT?*
*If someone can’t be sold, they’ll go into the processing tanks after they finish with all the animal life they took. The tanks have to be reprogrammed apparently, depending on species, planet of origin, and so on. The captain was just down here looking for the readings to program the tanks*
*We have to get out of here, before they leave orbit*
*Too late, they pulled out just after everyone was secured. They thought they were drawing too much attention, go figure*
*We’ll have to get out of here fairly quickly then. I wouldn’t want anyone ending up as lunch*
*Is anyone else actually conscious there?*
*My earlier self, that’s it*
*Let me know as soon as everyone else is up and about. The ship is on sleep cycle, and security is a little looser*
*Right, don’t go far*
*Very funny*
The Doctor broke the connection to find his counterpart staring at him.
“Who were you talking to?”
“Never mind, help me try to bring the others round,” The Doctor said, not wanting to say anything about Jack being awake on the off chance the cells were monitored.
***************************************************************
Link to part 3
***************************************************************
Wow, this installment is longer than I thought it would be. It is already around twice as long as any of the other chapters. Hope you enjoy this segment, and I’ll try to get it finished on Sunday night.
