The Littlest Timelord: The Fall of the Eleventh

Chapter 27

The Doctor walked up to the captain. "All we needed to do was let Skaldak go and he'd have forgotten us. But you attacked him. You declared war. Harm one of us and you harm us all. That's the ancient Martian code."

A beeping noise was coming from the Professor's headphones.

"You hear that? Skaldak has sent out a distress call. He will bring down the fires of hell just for laying a glove on him."

"Unless you talk to it?"

"I'm the only one who can."

"No. Out of the question. We're not losing you. I'll do it."

"What?"

"You can talk to it through me."

"Skaldak won't talk to you. You're an enemy soldier."

"And how would he know that?"

"A soldier knows another soldier. He'll smell it on you. Smell it on you a mile off."

"And he wouldn't smell it on you, Doctor?"

"Just let me in there before it's too late. It can't be you or any of your men."

"Well, it can't be you."

"Oh for god's sake," Elise groaned, rolling her eyes. She stepped forward. "I'll do it."

The Doctor spun around. "You? No! No! No way. You're not going in there alone, Elise. Absolutely not. No, no. Never."

"You promised! No more training wheels. Let me prove myself."

The Doctor sighed. "Ellie..."

"No! Don't 'Ellie' me. I'm yours and River's daughter. If anyone can do this, it's me. So come on. Let me be your brave, clever girl."

The Doctor finally walked up to her. "One sign of danger and I'm pulling you out, understood?"

Elise nodded and he placed his hands on her temples.

Elise opened the door to the torpedo room and stepped inside. She placed the radio headset on her head. She had initially argued against it, but the Doctor wouldn't let her leave without it.

"Ready, Elise?" her father asked her.

Elise nodded, running through the procedure the Doctor had implanted in her mind.

"Okay."

"Grand Marshal Skaldak." Elise clenched her fist and placed it against her left shoulder. "Sovereign of the Tharsyssian caste. By the moons, I honor thee."

"You can step closer to him," the Doctor told her.

Elise confidently stepped closer to him. "Grand Marshal, we're sorry about this. It isn't what you deserve."

The power went out.

"Great," Elise muttered.

"It's okay, Elise. Keep going," her father encouraged her.

"You're a long way from home. Five thousand years adrift in time. Please, let us help you. You are not our enemy."

"And yet I am in chains," Skaldak said.

HELP ME! The Doctor heard her scream in his mind. Timelords were connected telepathically, but normally Elise kept her mental barriers up, but he heard her clear as day.