ext
stop - Sintiminus Virgo, I think,' the Doctor said to himself as he
laid in the new co-ordinates for the far off mercury rivered world.He
had spent too much time in the TARDIS, trying to repair this and
tinkering with that, and a well deserved holiday with no alien worlds to
save was what he needed. Though it was to be a holiday alone - no
companions to come with him. He still couldn't believe he had let Peri
go. But that was in the past, and the future and looking forward, was
all he should be worrying about.
A noise filtered
through the TARDIS that made the Doctor stop controlling his ship. The
noise came again - STOOM STOOM STOOM. He was sure that he had heard the
noise before but where and when he was not sure. But the thing puzzling
the Doctor most was the fact that the noise was coming from outside his
vehicle. He flicked the scanner button, but the inky blackness was the
only thing that greeted his eyes. The noise reverberated through the
control room again and the Doctor could now tell where the noise came
from - the doors.
'Just what is going on?' he thought to himself, stroking his lapel badge of a cat for security.
Then it happened
- in one instantaneous blinding motion, the double doors flew inwards,
revealing, not the darkness of space, but a glowing white figure that
strode confidently into the console room. The Doctor recognised the lion
face warrior and allowed one word to escape from his lips. 'Biroc?', he
questioned as the figure gained solidity and the doors closed behind
it.
'Greetings yet again, Doctor,' the Tharil said, 'I hope my unprecedented arrival did not alarm you.'
The Doctor
stared at Biroc dumbfounded. 'Alarmed?' he said, 'Alarmed? You hammer at
the doors and burst in like that and you ask me if I'm alarmed? No, of
course I'm not alarmed - you only nearly gave me a double heart attack
after all!'
Biroc strode over to the Doctor and said in a soft wispy voice, 'I have not long. I have come to seek your assistance again.'
The Doctor
stared incredously at the Tharil. 'For the second time in as many
regenerations, you hi-jack my TARDIS - and then you say you need my
help. Ha!' The Doctor crossed his arms and stood by the console, looking
like a shellfish child.
'Please?' the Tharil asked, clawed paw out stretched as thou he were pleading.
The Doctor
glanced up and realised that he was looking extremely childish and not
behaving like a grown 900 year old should do. A smile slowly spread
across his face and put his arm around Biroc. 'What would you like me to
do, friend?'
Biroc's face
clouded over as if what he was going to relate upset him greatly. He
steadied himself and began his tale: 'When we were released from
Rorvik's Privateer in E-Space, we were once again free to explore the
time winds. We enjoyed freedom and made the most of it. But our freedom
was soon to be dramatically halted. The authorities who employed Rorvik
then hired a group of time mercenaries to hunt down and recapture all
Tharils.
They
accomplished this by capturing the very heart of the Zero Point and
hiding it on the planet Corision. We were drawn to it by its time
ripples and then we were all captured and chained in dwarf star alloy.
Any who tried to escape were massacred. We were kept in barbaric
conditions. And when they think the time is right, they have an auction
and sell us off to the highest bidder, for use in things such as time
experiments or just plain slave work. You must help us.'
The Doctor had
been listening with fascination and terror at the story. 'How did you
escape, Biroc?' he queried in a low, hushed voice.
azlo
walked around the crowed, smelly cage for the hundredth time. He
struggled at his chains for the hundredth time and he cursed Thaup and
all his time mercenaries for the hundredth time.
