The Doctor's Reluctant Companion [Tenth Doctor]

No Plan, No Problem

Who knew you could get a headache on top of a headache? My skull was pounding like a high school drumline as I struggled back into consciousness to find the Doctor hovering over me.

"Oh, good, you're alive! I didn't know if it would affect humans differently." He helped me sit up, checking my wrist for a pulse. "Hmm, bit thready..."

"Where's Rose?" I rasped, throat feeling like sandpaper.

"Right here. Still asleep. She'll wake up soon. I hope." The Doctor twisted around and pressed two fingers against Rose's throat.

"That's comforting." I laid back down, squinting in the harsh white light of a Charthakian light orb affixed to the ceiling. "What knocked us out?"

"Knocked you two out. Doesn't work on Timelords. Charthakians can exhale sleeping gas. They use it to immobilize their prey. That's what I was forgetting," the Doctor muttered.

I examined our surroundings. The three of us were confined in a small cave, one wall of the cavity constructed of loose stones stacked together. "Where are we?"

The Doctor shrugged off his coat and draped it over Rose. "Charthakian prison. Lizard claws don't combine well with metalworking, so, no bars, just rocks."

A hacking cough came from Rose, who rolled onto her side, body spasming under the force of her coughs.

The Doctor cradled her, placid expression turning to one of worry and dread. "C'mon, Rose, breathe..."

Rose's coughing subsided, and her eyes fluttered open, only to close again. "Ugh, if those lizards can see in the dark, why do they have these obnoxious light things?"

"Only what they call the Brethren can see in the dark," the Doctor explained. "Those are the Charthakians that chased us through the tunnels, they're used as soldiers and scouts. The High Court can't see in the dark, so they have those light orbs."

Rose grimaced. "I think I'd rather be in the dark. God, my head hurts."

The Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver from his pocket, a high-pitched buzz emanating from the device, and pointed it at the light orb. The brilliant sphere flickered out, plunging us into darkness.

I sighed in relief, the throbbing in my temples easing up a little. On the other side of the cave, I could hear the Doctor quietly explaining to Rose what had happened.

It wasn't long before we heard the scrape of claws on rock.

"Heads up," the Doctor whispered. His sonic screwdriver whined, and the orb overhead flickered back to life.

The wall of loose rocks crumbled outward. "Try to essscape, and you will be ssslain."

A sand-colored lizard's head peered in, then its claw reached in, hooking the Doctor by the collar. It dragged him out, not caring for the stifled cries of pain from the Timelord as his ankle caught on rocks.

Rose, having been dumped unceremoniously off the Doctor's lap, scrambled up and began picking her way through the scattered stones as fast as she could. "Be careful with him!"

Heart in my throat, I forced myself to my feet, every battered muscle screaming in protest. As I stumbled after Rose, head aching, another Charthakian, this one brown, grabbed the collar of my leather jacket in its jaws and picked me up, much like a mother cat with her kittens, except the mother was much more murderous. Glancing over, I saw Rose and the Doctor had been scooped up in the same way.

The Doctor hung limply in the Charthakian's teeth, eyes blank. Rose showed a little more emotion, occasionally swinging close enough to the Charthakian's plated chest to deal it an ineffective kick, face stormy.