Meanwhile, Leela looks on as the Tesh run.....shouting about the
end of the world and about "this" happening before the time of land.......
Leela
A Tesh babbles the same thing as his retreating companions as he curls
up into a small ball and shivers....and moans.
"Hiding there isn't going to help, then." I say with more than a bit
of contempt in my voice.
A bark of alien sounding words and a multicolored webwork covers the
shivering Tesh. The coward is so absorbed in his misery that I doubt that
he even knows he's as like a fly in a spiderweb (as the old knowledge terms
it.....though what exactly a "spider" is I'm not sure of). It just.....seems
to fit, somehow.
At least this time I don't have to stop myself from making a warding
sign as I'm more interested in one thing.
Oh, I know more or less from Betty and Ragan (two women who call themselves
"sister" though they do not look like they are from the same family.....though
act oddly like twins somehow) what is going on here.....and why, angering
as it is.....being the subject of some type of experiment from a mad thing
who's creation came about in part due to some kind of brother of the Doctor's......(analog?).
Not all made much sense, but I get the distinct impression that the
others are trying to be straight with me....and want me to understand.
Not trying to gain advantage over me and mine through duplicity and concealment.....but
oh......something about this.....makes me shiver.....
I push that aside to concentrate on more practical matters at hand.
Concentrating too far ahead and not on the here and now world is a deadly
mistake.....and as young as I may be......this world (....er.....the one
I'm from if I understand what the others have said) has impressed that
lesson in my heart.
I lower the "phasor" that Inquirer had given me (a weapon set on "stun"
instead of "kill") and look back at those coming up from behind us.
It had irked me at the time when she rather insisted on the trade for
the Tesh weapon I'd recovered.....but after seeing it in battle......I
think I shall thank her later. A much more elegant weapon....with a longer
range by far than what the Tesh have. Both work well for the tight corridor
environment, I see, but the phasor....... It can stun. It can kill. I am
told that it has a setting that can even make things disintegrate. Inquirer
said, that with a bit of effort.....it can act like a "hand grenade" of
sorts.
Something tells me I'd rather not experience the last personaly, whatever
a "hand grenade" is.......
She did assure me it was safe right now....on the setting and condition
it was in. All in all, a wonderful weapon one must treat with respect....and
it has mine!
"I do trust you learned what you needed to learn?" I ask, turning to
see the Doctor and the others who'd stayed back to give aid if need.
"Indeed I have, my dear....and he's worse than what I feared," the Doctor
sighs, looking down at the Tesh....who's screaming and clawing to get at
him....and the rest of us.
"Now I take it we go hunt for parts?" Betty asks, shouting over the
cursing Tesh.
"Exactly," the Time Lord shouts back, heading in a direction that
he saw, in passing on the way up here, some cabinets that may, perhaps,
contain the needed materials.....
I pause as if something....comes over me for a second....then I shake
my head and continue....only to be stopped by a concerned looking Sigin.
Sigin
"Least we forget," I say, "Let us not leave friend's minds unguarded."
"Pardon?" Leela asks, looking perplexed.
I take out a necklace and place it around her.
She weaves again as the link I had a sense forming between her and Xoanon
(if I am any judge from that odd look she'd had for a second there) is
broken.
"Ma'am," the dragon mage says politely, "As strong of mind and will
as you are......even the strongest minds can be bent to others will. We
needn't have you 'possessed' like that Tesh, do we?"
"Uh....no, that wouldn't do at all." she mutters, looking back at the
Tesh.
As she goes, Betty leans over.
"Good catch," she says, patting my shoulder. "Forgot about that problem
in the TV show."
I nod, smiling. We needn't have to worry about one of our own suddenly
turning on us, with energy blast flying!
And as one, we go....gather the needed material.....and pause
in surprise as we, in passing an auxiliary communication station......see
on the screens a frightful scene back at the village of the Sevateem!
No doubt a dilema set up by an increasingly desperate Xoanon to say
us in our quest?
-
 "I'm going
to help them!" Leela says resolutely, heading in the direction she knows
that transport to be.....
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