Leviticus : Dark Days

[Sarah Jane]

She'd been planet side, that she was certain of. The last thing she remembered was reaching for a transducer shield tube, then a hand had been on her face, a bitter smell down her throat and she had woken up here.

A Ghost ship. Emergency lighting. A hint of a chill. The floor grate pressed into her face. She pushed herself up with a moan, looking around. Two hours later, she knew she was on an abandoned ship, mid sized, called the Leviticus. It was adrift in space with her on it. It was most unfortunately populated with some sort of energy creature she did not recognize. Underneath it's sickly green, snapping glow was something tall and reminiscent of wild boar. A Minotaur, it seemed, nearly, and her stuck in it's maze. Sarah Jane also suspected there was more than one. They could be outrun, but were persistent, and by their bellowing, very annoyed with her.

The ship was also populated by the burnt husks of it's former crew. She did not want to be touched by one of the beasts.

There in the ruddy emergency lighting, she had managed to patch the com back together, and rout it to emergency power. As she opened the line, the room went pitch dark with the drain on the system.

"Doctor." She was surprised when her voice broke. "Doctor, it's Sarah Jane. I'm in trouble. Does anyone hear me out there? This is Sarah Jane Smith from Earth sending out an SOS. . . please."

Was that the slightest green glow coming from under the door?

[Ace]

Ace walked to her single bedroom flat she had been renting for a couple of weeks now, flipping through some papers as she went; the local newspaper and some bills nothing special. Pulling her keys out of her pocket with one hand she tried to flip the key to the flat around so she could unlock the door single handedly, dropping the key ring and all “...shoot.” she put the papers between her teeth and bit down on them, holding them in her mouth as she bent down to get the keys. Having to kick the door a couple of times before it opened she started to notice a beeping noise coming from somewhere in her room “huh?” she dumped what she was carrying onto a table near the door and started to kick some things around the floor to find where the beeping was coming from.

What she found was her floor with the beeping coming from underneath it “No friggin way.” she knew what it was a small distress signal motor she had made to monitor for key phases, Doctor, Daleks, Cybermen, stuff like that and also every companion name she could find in the TARDIS database or could ever remember hearing about. Typing in a quick message, piggy backing on the same signal the SOS had come in, as she pulled out her backpack with the Nitro-9, zappy bat, some alien blasters that she had “found” and a rocket launcher and shoved them in the bag ”Gotta love transdimensional stuff.”, she hit send, “If he won’t I will, help is on the way.” grabbing her jacket she headed out the door.

Once she felt she was safely out of eye shot of anyone she pulled a time hopper out of her jacket pocket and secured it to her wrist hit a button and disappeared, two hours later popped up at a planet. “ugh...nope” she hit it again.

[Sarah Jane]

There was only time for one message. The crackling had come again, the light, the sound of the thing breathing as she had stood there frozen in the dark for a moment. One message wasn't enough. But she could not stay. She opened the circuit, shutting off the system and bringing up the sepia and red lights.

Speed was on her side. She sprang to her feet and darted out the other door into a second small room. Sarah Jane darted up the ladder she had come down, steep and narrow runged. Utilitarian.

She'd learned much about this ship as she'd run around it, and was building a map in her head. This she cross referenced with the locations of the other two creatures she was guessing at. Up. Up and stern she would go. Once on the upper floor, she went along in smooth, quiet lopes, as fast as she could manage without making too much sound.

A plan formed in her mind, one to lure the creature far away from her broadcast station, then try running past on a different level. Making good time she might be able to get out another message. She did not know what else to do. She continued to play this Minotaur and mouse game. She was very good at it. However, she was challenged enough it was hard to come up with a plan b. Two hours later, she was half way to her goal.

Right now, she had to drop right through the mid deck on her way to the lowest level. Two were on this level, and closing. One was on the second level, and too near the drop hole of the ladder. But she must.

Sarah Jane swore, sat, legs through the hole, grabbed the rail, and swung down. She cried out as she hit the mid deck too hard, the beast there swinging toward her. Dropping though the last, she landed a little better and ran again, now ready to dash back to her hot wired com equipment.

[Ace]

Ace cursed as the hopper dropped her again not where she was meaning to go she jerked the thing off her wrist and stared at it, knowing that this probably wouldn’t make one bit of difference, pointing at the thing with her other hand “Look! I know your doing this on purpose, now straighten up and fly right or so help me....I’ll...I’ll dismantle you.” she put the hopper back on her wrist and hit the button again.

She took a deep breath as she reappeared on a ship ”Gotta love the smell of a ship.” she took a look at the read outs “Yep right place.” she started to call out Sarah Janes name but stopped herself, she didn’t know the situation so it probably would be in her best interest to figure it out first before she made her presence known vocally, she hit her boot on the floor lightly listening to the echo ability and smiled saying softly “but....” she put two of her fingers to her lips and let out three very high pitched whistles, the kind that carry a great distance. Then bolted down a corridor stopping to look down another corridor every once in a while to see if there was anyone down it.

Rounding a corner she came face to face with some form of energy creature, “...nope” without a second thought she about faced and bolted back in the direction she had come in like a flash. Taking a couple of sharp lefts and rights and coming to railing she looked down “...not to far.” she could hear the thing behind her so she backed up, pulling the straps on her bag to make sure the backpack was secured to her back she looked back at the creature and it drew closer “See this now...this you can’t do.” she ran to the railing and grabbed it as she went over swinging herself down onto the floor under it, rolling when she landed so she would land on her feet. Laughing when she stood up cause she had hoped that would work but she wasn’t sure she made sure to put as much distance between that creature and herself, letting out short high pitch whistles ever couple of minutes.

[Sarah Jane]

She thought she heard a whistle. Perhaps her mind was playing tricks on her. Still, she headed for it. Could the Doctor have caught her SOS? He had often called her with a whistle. She swore he did it because she had a terrible whistle. Show off.

She would do it, darn it all, she would. She dashed down a corridor, gaining ground from her pursuer, then dodged to mid ship where it was most open. Here she stopped to close her eyes, make fists, purse her lips, and cut loose with a whistle that didn't sound more than a few centimeters beyond her lips. Then she heard that other clear whistle again, and simply called out.

"I'm here! I'm here!" She shouted. A glowing, crackling Minotaur suddenly loomed in a hatch across the way. Sarah Jane started to run, to hell with the sound of it. Another shape loomed, with it's toxic glow and sulfur breath in that doorway. She squeaked, and went right up over a stairwell railing, climbing through like monkey bars to dash for yet a third hatch that as of yet stood dark.
"I'm here!"

The pair of them were quite a conundrum, now moving to herd her first one way, then the other as she clambered around in the stairwell and it's hard metal drop off a story and a half.

[Ace]

She heard someone she knew she did so she headed in the direction she had heard it come from, stopping for a second she jerked off her bookbag putting it on the ground, she pulled the blasters out of the bag and slung the bag back across her back, priming the blasters she ran around a corner now just mostly following the smell of the creatures.

Passing a hatchway she heard something and backpedaled, looking down she saw the creatures and Sarah Jane “Hey!” she reached down quickly holding out her hand for Sarah so she could pull her up to where she was.

[Sarah Jane]

Human voice, human face. Not the Doctor. A woman. A soldier. She looks up in open mouthed surprise, taking in her finely hewn, open face. Pale hair braided smoothly back. The hand thrust her way was short nailed and straight fingered. The arm attached looked strong enough to hold her 7 stone.

"Hi!" She said breathlessly with shock and sudden hope.

Sarah Jane let go the railing above, and for a weightless moment, stood poised on her toes on a single bar. She took that offered hand, and leaped upward, her second hand flying up to catch the woman around her bicep as she came upward.

[Ace]

When Sarah Jane caught her arm and started upwards Ace threw the other blaster down grabbing a hold of Sarah Janes forearm and smiled “Gotcha” to make sure there was no chance she would drop her. Using the momentum behind Sarah Janes jump she fell backwards onto the floor pulling Sarah Jane up onto the floor.

Once she was sure they where both not gonna fall she reached into her bag and grabbed two cans of Nitro-9, pulled the tabs and stuck her head over the hatchway “Here choke on this” she chucked the cans in then moved over shielding Sarah Jane some as they exploded. When she was sure nothing was gonna come crashing in on top of them she offered her hand smiling “Names Ace.”

[Sarah Jane]

She screamed as she was threaded through the rails at a good clip. The woman's arm held, and she shot up to the upper level. The woman fell back neatly, heedlessly, apparently to the hard metal to vault Sarah Jane all the way up before the creatures could snatch at her rapidly disappearing legs. It was fine arc that did not bang her on the metal all around, landing her instead like a good penny toss.

Her rescuer was armed to the teeth. Sarah Jane didn't know if she should be terribly thankful, or angry. Who needed all that? She found out when the woman loosed two canisters down the well at the approaching creatures. She was frankly shocked, and would have looked right over the edge in some effort to make it un-happen, when Ace got between her and the explosion she hadn't quite believed in until it shook them.

For a moment, she could only look back and forth from the woman soldier to the smoking hole and the couple of slabs of still sparking meat that lay on the deck near them. Then she realized the young woman, her own age perhaps, had said something, was holding out her hand. Was giving her a grin like a happy Kansas farm girl. Irascible and lovely. Sarah Jane ran her mental audio recording back, Ace.

"Sarah Jane Smith." She said, a little breathless, blinking twice. "There is another one somewhere." She put her hand in Ace's web to web in a good grip, her face cracking a little with gratitude. "Do you have a ship?"

[Ace]

Ace shook Sarah Janes hand and smiled “Nice to meet you Sarah Jane.” dropping her hand she looked over the hatch “Then we should put as much distance between us and them.” she looked back at Sarah Jane when she asked her if she had a ship “oh...umm not such.”

Pulling up her sleeve, showing Sarah Jane the hopper “Just this little thing....It’s a very primitive form of space/time travel. But...ya do what ya can.” she looked at it and groaned some “You have got to be kidding me.” she took the hopper off and turned it over, taking the back off “...Circuits fired. Typically.”

Sticking the hopper in one of her pockets, now she felt like an idiot “well...at least your not here alone. I take it there’s no escape ships left on this thing are there.”

[Alec Harrison]

The cans exploded...

...the smoke cleared...

...And then there was the glow. They were angry now. They made an ugly sound at Ace, a toss up of a hiss, a screech, a screech, and a human laugh.

-wait-

What? A human laugh? Why would the creature make that kind of- oh. The human came through the smoke. First visible were his black boots, then his gloved hand, which came next, then...

"Welcome, Sarah Jane, Ace," said the blonde, golden-eyed Timelord, "To my menagerie. You will find that there are many more creatures than just these on the Leviticus."

His laugh had dissipated. His inominous, casual, at-the-movies chortle wasn't there.

"Have you ever an advent calendar? Every day, you open another flap, revealing a new part. Difference is, here, every hour, another monster is let loose."

Alec smiled. 
"This is a Sontaran ship. Find the weapons."

He turned, walking away.
"Good luck. You'll need it."

[Sarah Jane]

An inhuman laugh came from within the billow of dispersing smoke. No. Not inhuman, for it sounded as if it could have come from a human throat, but it could never have come from a human mind.

Sweet stars, she knew that laugh. Every hair on her body was suddenly standing up at right angles to her skin.

The Dark Lord.

He came, tall and pale, striding out of the miasma of smoke as if it had birthed him. Sarah fell fully back in her shock. Her mouth fell open, for face had gone numb with fear in an instant, and it seemed as if there wasn't any air. It was difficult for her to move, to breath, for she is caught frozen in primal reaction : prey under the eye of predator.

His words could not have been less welcome, nor the vivid, bloody images they provoked within her. She and this poor soldier woman were going to die, and it was not going to be pretty. Sarah Jane found herself clutching at Ace's flap jacket.

The leather clad blade of a man gave is parting shot and turned to go. It was time for a witty remark, but non such came to her mind or her lips that moment. She was afraid of Alec Harrison in a way these energy beasts did not provoke in her.

He was smarter than her. That was the scary part. That and all the times he'd tried to kill her.

[Ace]

Ace turned around and watched as the tall man stepped from the smoke. When he spoke she narrowed her eyes at him listening. She wouldn’t go as far as to say the guy scared her but he did make her uneasy, and that annoyed the crap outta her and she’d be damned if she’d let him see that.

She looked down at Sarah Jane as she grabbed a hold of her jacket, she could see that the woman was scared and had a feeling that was the exact reaction this guy wanted, which in her mind made him no more then a big bully...a bully with the ability to kill them of course but a bully none the less.

Staring at the guys back as he walked away from them “Chicken...” before he could respond “Yup you heard right...this is all one big game to you isn’t it? Do you not have anything better to do with your time then scaring people in some sick game?” she gently put her hand on Sarah Janes bicep, trying to convey to her everything was going to be ok and steer her away from the current room “Come on I still gotta get you outta here.”

[Alec Harrison]

Ace.

He'd read about her when studying the Doctor.
"Oh! The emotional cripple. Almost forgot about you."

Alec turned, as if actually listening, or caring what she said.
"Chicken...” he didn't attempt to respond, “Yup you heard right...this is all one big game to you isn’t it? Do you not have anything better to do with your time then scaring people in some sick game?”

He chuckled again.
"Aren't you a doll?" he said, in the same tone with which one would speak to a child. "Well, I see you don't know much about how me and Sarah Jane...relate."

His head flipped through their pasts experiences like a book. Sarah would've been dead by now- no doubt. He could always outsmart her personally. It was whoever tagged along that somehow got him.

"I refer to a menagerie and an advent calendar, but this is no game. This..."

His lips curled back, his smile becoming cruel.
"Now this is payback."

[Sarah Jane]

Sarah Jane was startled to realize that the Dark Lord knew Ace somehow. Or perhaps he knew just enough about her to hurt her with his words. There was nothing like cruelty to get Sarah Jane back on her feet. She surged up, feeling as though she is standing on stilts, for she is still shocked by the Dark Lord's presence.

"Leave her alone!" She thundered, or tried to, but it came out a horse whisper as she glared at him, standing side by side and arm in arm with Ace, afraid the soldier girl will try to take on the Dark Lord, and probably die. And to make certain she herself didn't wind up on her backside in her shock. Her growing anger was taking the ice from her limbs and replacing it almost painfully with lava, however.

As he left them, she wanted to shout again. She wanted Alec Harrison to hear her. She wanted to tell him that he didn't really want to do this. That he didn't have to do this if he didn't want to. Even if he liked it now, she knew he'd regret it later. She could not shout, however, her breath this moment stolen by her fear.

"Come on, I still have to get you out of her." Ace said, most miraculously, and Sarah Jane found she could breath again. Her face burst into a hopeful smile as she gulped in welcome air.

"Aren't you clever, Ace!" She clapped the woman on the back. "Lets go!"

She could not quite explain, even to herself, how every desperately she did not wish to open the next door in this Advent calendar from Hell.

There was something deep and wide in Ace's eyes that made her wonder if this diminutive woman soldier had too traveled through time, but she did not want to slow their journey out of here by asking her about it right now.