kalleah | The Song of Yarru, Chapter Six

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The Doctor disabled the survey station's transmat and outside communications easily and piloted the TARDIS close enough to the station to melt the clamps securing the docked transport ship. With the opportunities for exiting the station temporarily limited to the TARDIS itself, their next step was to retrieve Aiku and get them all safely back to the ship.

Rose was too worried about Aiku to dwell too much on Anahit's other assertion – that they had to do more than simply snatch her back. The Doctor hadn't said what his plan on that front was, and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know. For the moment, she concentrated on finding some easier rescue plan than what he had proposed.

"Can we land the TARDIS near her?" Rose asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "It's too risky. If I'm off in my calculations at all – well. I'd like to rescue her, not flatten her."

Rose had a terrible mental image of the witch's foot poking out from under Dorothy's house, and shuddered. "Can't we just transmat her out?"

"I'm blocking the transmat functions on the station," he reminded her, his look telling her that he was losing patience with her alternative ideas.

All this technology, Rose thought sourly, and we still have to sneak down hallways and break down doors.

"I should go," he said. "You two can stay here."

Rose and Anahit both protested at once.

"You should stay," Rose said. "You know how to use all this stuff. I can get Aiku out."

"I'm going with you," Anahit stated with finality. "She's my sister."

The Doctor opened his mouth but before he could give them fifty reasons why these were both bad ideas, Rose put her finger over his lips. "I know you want me safe," she told him. His eyes narrowed back at her but he didn't speak. "The best way to do that is for you to stay here and make sure that they're all distracted." She grinned. "You're pretty good at distractions."

"Mmm," he said from behind the finger, obviously not convinced.

"Forget that it's me for a minute. It makes sense, doesn't it?"

He removed her hand from in front of his face and curled his fingers around it. "That's the problem, Rose. I can't forget that it's you."

This simple statement of fact melted her insides, and she tried to stick to her logic. "Well, I have the same problem about you, and I'm not going to be able to do nearly as much from inside here as you can. I can run down a hallway and get Aiku out of that cell."

"I can't wait any more for you two to decide who's going to risk their lives," Anahit burst out. They both turned to face her, hands still clasped together. "The Doctor comes with me."

…

The TARDIS materialized in the supply closet, and the Doctor and Anahit huddled with the door to the hallway slightly cracked while he scanned outside and verified that they were alone.

"Clear," the Doctor said. "Distraction time." He pointedly didn't look at Rose, behind the console and ready for what she needed to do, but she knew better than to mistake that for indifference.

The Doctor and Anahit set off down the hallway at a run.

…

"Pressure reduction in section two," the system computer stated in the warm, unthreatening voice designed to convey critical information in the least alarming method possible. "Action recommended."

Watson looked from the portable video recorder in his hand to the blinking wall display. While the station wasn't large, the possible leak was on the opposite side from the holding cell. With loss of atmosphere as one of the key threats to life on board a survey station, or any space vessel, everyone on board would be there in a hurry.

He hesitated for only a moment before making his decision. With four other people on board to deal with the leak, he had a chance to see the captive alone.

He reached the cell at a run and threw open the door, stopping dead at what he saw inside. There were two of her. One was still on the table, looking dazed and slow, and the other was standing next to her with an arm wrapped around her back, urging her to sit.

He felt something cold and solid press against the back of his head. "Don't move," a steady voice told him. A man. He didn't dare turn his head to look.

Cautiously, he held up his hands, holding them forward so the man behind him wouldn't think he meant to try and wrest control of whatever it was he had against his head. "I'm here to help." A rescue attempt? But homo cantans had no capability for space travel, much less transmat technology. "I didn't take her. My name is George Watson. I'm a research scientist. There are others on this station who will do you harm if they find you."

"We're taking her home," the mirror image of the captive snapped. Her fur stood up in every direction, like a cornered animal, and she kept pulling her lips back from her teeth in a half-snarl.

"Yes. Yes. That's good." Watson continued, keeping his voice level despite his fear.

"Into the corner," ordered the man behind him, with a nudge for emphasis.

"She's been drugged," he said as he moved well away from the door.

"Anahit," the woman on the table said shakily. "I don't know if I can walk."

"Yes, you can," her identical rescuer said in a gentler tone than she had used with Watson. Without taking her eyes off him, she shifted one side and slid an arm under the other woman's shoulders. "Come on. We're going to go home."

"Pressure reduction in section three," the system computer soothed over them. "Action recommended."

"Anahit," Watson repeated. "That's your name? I need to record this. I don't want them to come back and take someone else, so I need evidence."

"What evidence?" The man behind sounded curious, and Watson strained his eyes to the left, trying futilely to see behind him.

"What they've done is wrong. I need to show others what they've done by taking her. Look, I know you have no reason to trust me, but I'm not with the others. I didn't know – I want to stop this from happening again. Please."

His hands were shaking where he held them out in front of him. When the other man came into his field of vision, brandishing a slender silver instrument with a bright blue light at the tip, Watson was utterly astonished to see that he was human.

"What did you have in mind?" asked the man.

"I thought – I thought you were one of them," he stammered, his attention fixed on the instrument aimed at him. He had no idea what it was.

"Does that make a difference?"

"No. I mean, you don't need me, do you? I thought I was all she had." He glanced at the captive, who had her arm slung around her apparent twin and was struggling toward the door. "I couldn't let them –they mean to use her as a weapon. Her song."

"Anahit," the captive gasped in horror. "Is that true?" She had gone slack against the supporting arm and she seemed to stare through Watson before her gaze locked into his. "Is that true?" She was asking him, now.

"It has to be," he said. He felt sick. He hadn't thought of the effect the revelation would have on her before he'd blurted it out – only of the need to make sure her rescuers knew it.

"What were you planning to do here?" asked the man.

"I was going to record a message to send to some of my contacts in several conservation groups." Surely, this man worked for one of them? "We have to show what they're doing here, to hold them accountable."

"To stop them from taking anyone again?" Anahit asked.

"Yes."

The two rescuers exchanged a significant look, punctuated at the end with Anahit's emphatic nod.

"All right then, George Watson, you're with us," the man said. "I'm the Doctor, by the way, nice to meet you." He flashed Watson a dazzling smile before waving Anahit and Aiku through. Watson was right behind them.

Sellick, Egan, and Moss were right around the first corner.

Chapter Seven