Pirate Loop, The (15 page)

'Whatever are you doing, dear?' she asked.

'Writing a note in case there were any survivors,' he said. He left the note on the wreck of the horseshoe of computers and hurried over to her. 'Are you all right?' he asked.

'Oh, we soldier on, dear,' she said. 'But you know there's nothing to drink downstairs.'

'Shocking,' he said. 'I'd complain.'

'I did!' said Mrs Wingsworth, laughing. 'Only there's no one here to take the slightest bit of notice!' The laugh died in her throat, but the Doctor could see her refusing to let him see how scared she'd been, how much she'd suffered.

'It's going to be all right,' he said. 'I promise you.'

Mrs Wingsworth reached out her tentacles to him. 'Martha!' she said, a tremor in her voice. 'She said I had to find you!'

'And you have,' said the Doctor kindly. 'It's going to be all right. I'm here now. You just have to tell me what I missed.'

Mrs Wingsworth, tears streaming down her egg-shaped orange body, did her best to explain.

'The pirates,' she said. 'They came. They killed
everybody.
And no one's coming back.'

'You know what?' said the Doctor, stood in the transmat booth. 'Neither do I.' He grinned. 'Ah well. Sure I'll think of something.' And with a pop he vanished.

Martha sighed. There was nothing to do but wait until he'd sorted everything out. She turned to join the party of humans and three badgers. And then she froze.

Projected on the wall, the spiky peach of the badger pirates' spaceship had begun to move. Tiny pirate capsules spewed from the back of the ship, each zipping round to attack the
Brilliant
head on. They fired their weapons, and another screen to the left blared warning signals about the
Brilliant's
shields.

Captain Georgina, Thomas and some of the other crew were racing to the horseshoe of computers. 'Get a channel open!' Captain Georgina shouted. 'Get a channel open!'

'Open, sir,' said Thomas quickly, busy at the controls.

'Archie!' said Captain Georgina. Time for you to do your stuff.'

'Oh, er, yeah,' said Archibald, hurrying to join the human crew. 'Uh, Captain Florence?' he said, and Martha could see how awkward and scared he was about just speaking to the air. 'This is, uh, Archie. There's food 'ere. Good food.'

Thomas fussed with the controls, getting only static in response. And then a voice was heard loud and clear. 'Archie?' said a vicious-sounding badger woman. 'You're in
big
trouble, y'swab!'

For a moment they stared at Archibald, who could only shrug. Then something smashed into the
Brilliant
and the impact knocked them all off their feet.

'Keep trying!' shouted Captain Georgina as she scrambled back to the controls. 'You've got to convince them!'

'Yeah,' said Archie. Dashiel and Jocelyn, holding hands, joined him at the horseshoe of computers and they all tried appealing to their former comrades.

Captain Georgina signalled the rest of the human crew. 'We're going to have boarders,' she told them. 'You'll take your positions and hold them from the engine rooms.'

'Sir,' said the brunette. 'The Doctor took our guns.' It was true: a mess of broken weapons lay littered on the floor, their innards used to build an almost working Teasmade.

'Hell,' said Captain Georgina. She shoved Archibald aside and took his place next to Thomas. 'This is Captain Georgina Wet-Eleven of the Starship
Brilliant,'
she told the attacking badgers. 'You are in violation of intergalactic transit codes six, fourteen and twenty. You will desist your attack
at once,
or we will blast you from the sky.'

There was a pause, and just for a moment Martha thought the defiance in the captain's tone might have made the pirates reconsider.

'Ha!' said the gruff female voice they'd heard before. 'Bring it on!'

Again they were thrown from their feet as something smashed into the ship. And again. 'They're 'ere!' said Jocelyn, from the ground beside Martha.

'S'OK,' said Dashiel. 'We'll tell 'em.' He led Jocelyn quickly out of the bridge, through the door which was no longer blocked by scrambled egg. They passed a flustered Mrs Wingsworth as they went.

'Get that passenger out of here!' shouted Captain Georgina. A couple of the human crew ran to bustle Mrs Wingsworth off the bridge, but Martha hurried over.

'She's with me,' she said. Again the ship buckled as something smashed into it. The human crew obviously decided that they had better things to do than worry about the passengers. Martha led Mrs Wingsworth out into the crew's quarters, away from all the panic.

'More haste, less speed, I always say, dear,' Mrs Wingsworth said, rolling her eyes. 'What
has
been going on?'

'The Doctor let us out of the time loop,' Martha explained. 'But now the pirates are attacking.'

'What, like those three dears?' said Mrs Wingsworth.

'Remember what they were like when they first got here?' said Martha.

Before Mrs Wingsworth could reply, the wall exploded just ahead of them. Martha barely registered the Smart car-sized capsule that had crashed aboard before she was lifted off her feet. A capsule-sized gash in the side of the ship gaped out onto open space. Martha tried to scream but the air was being sucked out into space just as she was. She flailed her arms and legs as she fell towards the hole, but there was nothing to grab on to...

Something yanked her ankle hard and this time she managed to cry out. Twisting back, she found Mrs Wingsworth clutching her with one tentacle, the other gripping round the bunk of one of the human crew's beds. They both hung in mid air, Mrs Wingsworth's tentacles taut and skinny with the strain. Her glittering, golden jewellery buckled and broke, each piece dancing in the air as it tumbled into space.

'Oh really!' muttered Mrs Wingsworth, her teeth clenched as she fought to keep her grip. 'That used to be my mother's.'

Martha struggled for breath as the hole in the side of the ship tried to swallow her. A human crewmember – the pretty brunette – tried to reach for Martha's hand. They brushed fingers, didn't quite catch hold, and then the brunette tumbled out into the dark, starry vacuum. As she fell out, she was hit by flecks of the red, jelly-like substance fast sealing the hole behind her.

Martha and Mrs Wingsworth crashed down onto the hard floor the moment the hole had been sealed. They lay there panting, then Mrs Wingsworth grabbed Martha's ankle again and dragged her into the small room with the bed in it she'd clung to. She slammed the small door just at the same time as another capsule burst through the far wall. Martha hugged her tight as, beyond the closed door, they heard the screams of yet more human crewmembers being sucked out into space.

The
Brilliant
lurched again and again as the pirate capsules smashed into it. Martha felt sick and terrified. But it seemed to be quiet now, on the far side of the door. She put her ear to the door, and heard muffled shouts and shooting. The badger pirates were pillaging the ship.

She desperately needed to know where the Doctor had got to. He wouldn't leave them to die like this. She knew he'd come for her somehow.

'You can't go out there, dear!' squealed Mrs Wingsworth. Martha hadn't even been aware of her hands working to unlock the door.

'I've got to find the Doctor,' she said.

'No you don't!' insisted Mrs Wingsworth, and swiped Martha away from the door with a tentacle like a tree trunk. 'You're not going to do anything silly. We both have to—'

The door disintegrated in a sudden ball of pink light. Had Martha still been in front of it, she would have been obliterated herself. Mrs Wingsworth whimpered as a helmeted badger pirate stormed into the small room, prodding her with his gun.

'You Marfa?' the badger said bluntly, with a gruff female voice.

'Er,' said Mrs Wingsworth. 'I might be, dear.'

The badger pirate raised his gun at her. 'No wait!' cried Martha from where she lay on the floor. 'I'm Martha. Just leave this one alone.'

'Huh,' said the badger pirate. She reached down, grabbed Martha's arm in her hairy paw and started dragging her out into the passageway.

'Now really!' Mrs Wingsworth began to protest.

'Please!' Martha told her as she was taken roughly away. 'Stay there, stay safe. You have to find the Doctor!' And then she was round the side of one of the capsules and could not see Mrs Wingsworth any more.

The badger pirate dragged her back onto the Brilliant's bridge. A whole gang of badger pirates awaited them, the last three of the human crew kneeling in front of them, their hands clasped to their heads. Thomas, Captain Georgina and a pretty, red-haired girl were all that had survived. The rest, Martha realised, must have been shot or sucked out into space. With these last three survivors were Archibald, Jocelyn and Dashiel. A male badger was shouting at them, brandishing a bent silver tray.

'But Stanley,' Dashiel tried to explain. 'It happened. We ate the food and then it was there again!'

Stanley was about to say something when he saw Martha being brought in. 'Good one, Zuzia,' he told the badger gripping Martha's arm. 'Put her with the rest.'

'But she's good,' said Archibald quietly.

'Shaddap!' snapped Stanley. Zuzia led Martha over to the three human crew, and gestured with her gun for Martha to kneel in the same way that they did. Martha did as she was bidden, taking her place between Captain Georgina and Thomas. Blood dripped from Thomas's handlebar moustache and he wouldn't meet her eye.

'You don't have to hurt us,' said Martha calmly.

'Nah,' said Stanley, coming over. 'But we wanta.' To prove his point, he cuffed Thomas across the face with the back of his paw. He leered at Martha, his breath hot and stinky in her face. But before he could hit her or hurt her, another badger came running in.

'Yeah, Toby?' said Stanley.

'We got the drive,' said the newcomer.

'Hah!' said Stanley. 'Get it back to the captain. We just gotta finish up 'ere.'

'Aw,' said Toby. 'Can I watch?'

'Get off!' snapped Stanley. 'S'more important.'

'Right,' said Toby, and he hurried away. Stanley turned back to his prisoners.

'Don't do this,' Martha told him.

'I got orders, ain't I?' said Stanley.

'Yeah, but no one owns anyone.' said Dashiel.

'Hah!' laughed Stanley. But there was a murmur from some of the other badgers. Martha dared to glance round at them. No, she could see they weren't happy with three of their prisoners being badgers from their own ship. 'You reckon?' Stanley leered at Dashiel.

'Yeah,' said Dashiel, daring to get to his feet. The other pirates still kept their guns on him. 'We don't 'ave to be slaves alla time.'

Stanley snorted at him, but clearly had no answer to this. He wrinkled his wet, black badger nose, and Martha could see him thinking this proposition over. Then, without any fuss, he raised his gun and shot Dashiel squarely in the chest. Dashiel screamed as the pink light engulfed him.

'Dash!' cried Jocelyn, but before she could move, Archibald had grabbed her, stopping her from getting shot herself.

The pink light died away and Dashiel's dead body toppled over onto the floor.

'Hah,' said Stanley.

'Tha's
bad,
Stanley,' said Archibald, hugging Jocelyn as she sobbed into his shoulder.

'Yeah?' said Stanley. 'Captain Florence ain't 'appy wiv 'im. You flew off before you was told.' So, thought Martha, that explained why only the three badger pirates had got aboard the
Brilliant
at first. Dashiel hadn't been able to wait.

'Dash said we'd get the spoils,' said Archibald quietly.

'I know that!' said Stanley. 'He's a cheater. We all 'ave to wait till she says we can go. Uvverwise it ain't fair.'

'Yeah,' said Archibald. 'But...'

'No but!' snapped Stanley. 'Captain Florence wants ta see you and Joss. Tell you off 'erself.' Martha saw Archibald and Jocelyn both shiver with terror at the thought of whatever punishment their captain might have in store for them. 'And you can take 'er that one, too,' added Stanley, waggling his gun in the direction of Martha.

'Me?' she said, horrified. 'Why me?'

'Archie's been tellin' us all about ya,' said Stanley. 'You put stuff in his 'ead.'

'What, the canapés?' she said, trying to sound surprised and innocent. 'That's just a bit of food.'