Jenny quickly slammed her hand against the door control panel, the hatch sealing shut just before the first volley would have blasted both herself and the Captain into bits.
"What in the-?"
"It's ray shielded." Jenny said. "That thing can hit it with that low-grade laser until the stars burn out, it won't get through." Jenny said.
"Yes, I know that!" Jones huffed. "Why is it shooting at us?"
"Pretty sure Snails has something to do with that." The blonde said. "We need to figure out a way to disable that thing."
"Perhaps I can help with that." Bishop said, having come up to the pair of them. Slipping a hand to his wrist, he manipulated what looked to be a watch. "Android B-118. Stand down. That is an order." His watch beeped in the negatory. "...something has hacked the signal. There's a dampening field coming from within the bridge."
"Well, a lot of good that does us." Jenny rolled her eyes. "What about the other android?"
"What about it?" Bishop asked.
"We position it at the hatch, open it, and it opens fire on the other one." Jenny said.
"What about Kraisem?" Jones asked. "I'm not putting him at risk."
"Stuck for a way in, Captain?" Snails' voice came from the grillwork of the nearby speaker. Jones nearly broke it as he pressed the key to respond.
"I'm gonna throttle you when I get in there, Snails!" The captain roared.
"I'm afraid that isn't in the plan, sir. You see-"
"Reformation, this is Bishop. Lock onto the conscious lifeform on the bridge and activate the transmat."
"What? What? No! No! No-" Snails was suddenly cut off as, it seemed, he was presumably transmatted away.
"There. Now open the bridge." Bishop said.
"Are you crazy? That thing is still there!" Jones said. "I'll be surprised if it hasn't killed Kraisem!"
"But it hasn't, has it?" Jenny asked. "He did say the conscious lifeform, not the unconscious one."
"He is still alive, yes." Bishop said. "Without the dampening field active, which it no longer is," He tapped his watch to demonstrate, "the robot is back under my command. Open the door." Jones, against his better judgment, did. The hatch slid open and there stood the robot, completely immobile as it waited for instructions. Jenny walked over to where Kraisem sat, pressing a pair of fingers to his neck.
"He's alive."
"Mostly, yeah." Kraisem croaked out. "I think whatever he gave me is wearing off..."
"Alright, Kraisem. Glad you're up and at 'em." Jones said.
"From the neck up, at least." Kraisem said, still clearly unable to move.
"So Snails was behind the attack on Andrew. And this. Probably did the engine room, too." Jenny said. "But why?"
"It's irrelevant." Bishop said, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "We'll send a technician team to help repair your vessel, Mr. Jones. The second phase of your contract has been sent to you by your personal choice of messenger."
"Second phase? Personal choice of-" Jones started, hearing the computer monitor nearest Kraisem go off. "Kraisem, what is it?"
"Uh... sir?"
"Right, right, sorry." Jones said, reaching over the still mostly paralyzed man and pressing a button to open the message, reading it carefully. "That's... a lot of zeroes..."
"Plus the rights of salvage for anything you find that is not the objective." Bishop said. "As per the original agreement."
"We're in." Jones said.
"What is it? What are we doing?" Jenny asked.
"Going back to the planet." Jones said. "We've got more salvage to do after all." He turned to Bishop. "Is the Cook going to be on this as well?"
"Yes." Bishop said. "They are being handled elsewhere, though. By another representative. You need not concern yourself with them."
"At these prices, I certainly won't." Jones said.
"I shall be leaving now, Mr. Jones. Get your men ready." Bishop said, turning with his two androids and starting to leave the bridge.
"What happened to Snails?" Jenny asked, causing Bishop to stop at the hatch.
"He will be detained on our vessel for the attempted mutiny of a Company ship." He said simply. "When this is over, he shall be taken before the Disciplinary Committee and tried." Without another word, he left the bridge.
"Well, that's that, then." Jones said.
"What?" Jenny stared at him, but Jones didn't seem to be listening. It would be a short time later that both Andrew and Kraisem would find their mobility returned to them and another shuttle brought over technicians from Bishop's ship, the Reformation. Andrew spent some time directing them on the placement of things given modifications he had made to the Champlain.
Most of this went ignored and they left him with a large invoice at the end.
Jenny, with her legs dangling over the edge through the safety railing, sprang up as soon as Andrew set the datapad holding the invoice onto the nearby bench in disgust.
"How are you feeling?" She asked him.
"Like the captain is going to have a heart attack when he sees this invoice for services." Andrew said. "But, at least the slipspace drive and the engines are back up and running at full."
"No, I meant you. How are you feeling?" Jenny asked. "I mean, someone just tried to kill you. Twice."
"Yeah, trying to not think about that." Andrew said. "Snails is a friend. I don't know why he would do something like that."
"I was wondering about that myself." Jenny said. "I think that whole thing was a little too sudden."
"What do you mean?"
"Bishop showed up, just teleported him off the ship before anyone could ask any questions, and we're supposed to think something's not up?"
"...huh."
Onboard the Reformation, however, Snails had been severely beaten and was now slumped against the wall of the interrogation room. The two Company bruisers who had been roughing him up stopped as the door at the far end of the room opened. In stepped none other than Mr. Bishop, who stared at the broken, beaten man with a completely stoic gaze.
"Well, Mr. Sullivan. You have proven to be a poor choice of agent." Bishop said.
"Sorry... guess I let everyone down..." Snails choked out with biting sarcasm.
"According to your file, you were hired on by the Company to report on the happenings onboard the Champlain and to make sure this mission went as planned." Bishop said.
"The gas didn't kill Caitlinson. I had to improvise."
"Your improvising was...?"
"Sending a robot to off him so that no one could repair or use the slipspace drive, just as I was instructed."
"You did disable the drive well, long enough for us to arrive and present the second half of the contract, that is true. However, was it necessary to commandeer the Champlain?"
"I-"
"Let me finish that thought for you." Bishop cut him off. "You knew your attempt had failed and, thinking your next attempt might also fail, you were attempting to hold me hostage, weren't you?"
"I don't-"
"Buy your own release, but you should know better, Mr. Sullivan. There is no escape from Us."
"Is he prepared?"
"Not yet." Snails heard the other voice, but was confused as to who it was or where it was coming from. With an eye swollen shut, he could not see anyone in the room but Bishop and the two thugs.
"I require the biodata, Bishop. Bring him to me."
"You are not the one in charge of this operation, I-"
"Your precious Board knows of our agreement, Bishop. You serve me, not the other way around. Now, bring him to me."
"...as you wish." Bishop said. He gestured to the two bruisers. "Pick him up." Snails gasped out in both surprise and pain as he was hoisted up by the two men. He vainly struggled as he was pulled away, taken over to the far wall as it opened up, revealing another chamber. It looked, through the man's one good eye, to be a laboratory. Several large tanks of fluid abounded, each one occupied by what looked to be humanoids in various states of development. At the center of it all, however, was a single one that was filled with a white liquid and what looked like black smoke ebbing and flowing with the movement of it.
"Heal him his injuries... he is of no use so broken." Bishop snapped his fingers and Snails could see the glimmer of Chula healing technology. His bones reknit, his skin returned to its unblemished state, and his eye was no longer swollen shut. He felt relief... and he jerked himself free of his two captors.
"I'm out of here!" Snails snapped, but soon found the far wall sealed up and one of the men tackling him into it, pinning him there. "Let me go! Let me go!"
"Bring him to me!" The voice seemed to be coming from the tank. Despite his efforts, Snails was no better equipped for fighting for his freedom without his wounds and was soon forced onto his knees before the tank. "Yes... yes... you struggle so much, human. So very much. Your heart racing. Your blood pumping. Your skin sweating. All of this. The feeling. The touch."
"What the hell are you?" Snails asked.
"I was once a living, breathing being... such as you." The voice from the tank spoke as the smoke seemed to coalesce together, somehow transitioning from an almost liquid thing into something more solid. "I could touch. I could see. I could see. And you will help me do all of those things again... for a while."
"How do-"
"I will take your body..." A hand of that same black ooze shot forth from the tank and grabbed Snails around the throat. The man gave a choked gasp before he was forced upward by unearthly strength and plunged into the icy cold fluid of the tank. He gasped, sputtered, and struggled, but all in vain as the black ichor seeped into him, entering through the eyes, nose, and mouth. Finally, he went limp and began to sink into the tank only for his eyes to suddenly open and he began to pull himself out. "I already know this isn't the one..."
"Our scientists have not been able to succeed in replicating Time Lord DNA." Bishop said. "Whatever your people did to you, it seems that we can only present temporary alternatives. For now, humanoids are the best we can do."
"Humanoids. Arrogance." The body of Snails spat, speaking in a voice that was definitely not the man. "My civilization was long in power and affluence while yours were still crawling from the stink of the primordial slime! Do not deign to speak to me of your arrogance in thinking yourselves so high! Not when I... I... I have been so much more! I am so much more!"
"Sir, you would understa-"
"Say my name."
"Say my name." The dead man walking's eyes narrowed on the man in the suit and glasses. "I was Lord President of Gallifrey. I was the conqueror of the Eight Worlds! Do not saddle me with such a pitiful little title as 'sir'. SAY. MY. NAME!"
"Okay, but why?" Jenny asked. "If he was going to go through so much trouble to kill you and make the ship inoperable, why would he seize the bridge? Why would Bishop have him transmatted away so quickly?"
"What makes you think he's in on it?" Andrew asked.
"C'mon now, think! Taking away someone who tried to kill you and take over the ship before we could question him?" Jenny asked. "I think even the captain would have thought of it, too, if Bishop hadn't dangled all those credits in front of his face."
"So... you think Bishop planted Snails here to do this?" Andrew asked.
"Or otherwise hired him to do this." Jenny said. "Someone wanted to keep the Champlain here and were willing to kill you off to make it happen. Is there anyone else who could fix the engines if they break down?"
"Not without a lot of help, no." Andrew admitted.
"Right." Jenny nodded. "So, there's too much unsolved here to make me think that things aren't connected. There's something we're missing, though - the why."
"Well, what about the contract that the captain got?" Andrew asked. "You said he had said it was for more salvage?"
"Right." Jenny said. "And it was enough that the Company hired two salvage teams to open up ways to it."
"Something in the planet... right." Andrew said. "It must be something important."
"Or dangerous."
"Maybe. The answer to what happened to Snails and what is on the planet is on that ship. I gotta get over there."
"That is not a good idea." He said.
"Of course it's a good idea." She said.
"No, it really isn't."
"I disagree."
"Your disagreement is noted. You're also completely mental."
"Thank you!" Jenny grinned. "That'll make it even better when it works!"
"You want to intercept a transmat beam that no longer exists and get onto a bigger ship that's no doubt staffed with plenty of armed guards and who knows what else-" Andrew started.
"Actually, that's even better than what I was going to try, thanks!" Andrew groaned. Jenny continued, "Look,
"I agree, but that doesn't mean that I think hopping over there to figure it out is in any way a good idea."
"What do you propose, then?"
"Not going over to the ship of certain death?"
"Which avoids the problem rather than facing it." Jenny said. "We're not going to learn anything here. Where's your sense of adventure?"
"Not on the ship of certain death." Andrew retorted.
"Just as well, you'd just get in the way anyway."
"Excuse me?"
"Nothing personal. Some people just aren't cut out for it."
"Cut out for what?"
"What my Dad would do in this situation." Jenny said. "Poke around, find a civilization to rescue, defeat a terrible creature, do an awful lot of running."
"Your Dad... you mentioned him before." Andrew said. "Said you only knew him for a day."
"That's right."
"Who is he?"
"Well, you saw him." Jenny said. "The image that Bishop showed us."
"I... you... what?!" Andrew's eyes went wide. "Your Dad's the-"
"Yes." Jenny said. "That's my Dad. I'm the Time Lord that Bishop was looking for. That's why I need to go. I can find out what happened with Snails, find out what their real plan is, and find out what they know about my Dad. Now, I'm gonna do that with or without you, Andrew. So what's it going to be?"
"I..." Andrew was taken aback by all this. She could see the conflict on his face.
"It's up to you." Jenny said. "You can stay here, stuck up in his engine room for the rest of your life tinkering and puttering about... or you could take a deep breath... and jump. Your choice." She started to move toward the door. After a few seconds, Jenny was smiling as she heard his footfalls as he moved to join her.
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