From: bradkwillis@aol.com (BKWillis)
Date: 13 Nov 2001 04:24:33 GMT
Subject: Re: A story we can all create..

The Doctor tightened his grip on the dangling chunk of metallic latticework,
forcibly reminding himself not to look down as he tried to pull himself up
into a less-awkward position.  The metal groaned under its shifting burden, a
groan he echoed as he felt his precarious perch begin to pull loose from the
jumble of ruined struts and girders above it.

"It isn't the fall I mind," he muttered to himself, "so much as that dreadful
hard stop at the end." Against his own better judgement, he glanced at the
ground wheeling along so far below and wondered if one could actually
regenerate back from a pulp.

There was a low creaking sound as the piece of lattice began to droop.

"Doctor!" cried a voice above him.  He looked up to see Gorthund's anxious
face peering down at him from a platform not far overhead.  "We're fetching a
rope," he went on, "so stay right where you are!"

"I wasn't really planning on going anywhere," the Time Lord answered drily.
The metal creaked and shuddered again.  "Unfortunately, the decision may not
be entirely mine!"

----

Thanks to her pause to observe the rifle practice, Babydoll arrived at the
courtyard containing Cain's 'office' shortly behind War Captain Rahaaz and
the band of warriors and slaves that were even then wrestling the TARDIS down
from its sulky pack-gurvuk.  She stepped around them and started for the
door, only to stop as Rahaaz slipped in front of her.

"Hold, Overworlder," the War Captain said, his palm out.

Babydoll's hand instinctively dropped to her knife hilt, but even as she laid
fingers to it, she realized that Rahaaz's tone was not one of command, but
more...  concern, perhaps?  She relaxed a little, but did not step back from
him, nor take her eyes from his.  "Yes, War Captain?" she asked impatiently.

The massive Servii shifted uneasily.  "I bid thee wait a moment before thou
dost enter.  The time is...  a bad one, methinks."

Now the sound of raised voices came to her ears, one a deep, guttural Servii,
the other the too-familiar tones of a certain Time Lord of her near and
not-always-dear acquaintance.

"Who's in there?" she asked.

Rahaaz's thick lips twisted in reply.  "The Exalted War Chief Murgonj," he
said, managing to fit the tiniest note of sarcasm into Murgonj's title.

Babydoll rolled her eyes.  Murgonj was the most stubborn of all the
independent War Chiefs, one of the last to join the banners of the Serviion
Hordes and one of the first to criticize each break with Servii tradition.
All of which would have been fine, had his venomous temperament not been the
source of constant death-duels and inter-warband skirmishing.  Three rival
War Chiefs had already been slain in the fighting, along with scores of
common warriors and it seemed as though the Exalted War Chief was becoming a
focus for the dissident factions that opposed the Servii's new direction.  As
of late, the 'unholy female presence' had been a particular focus of his bile
in Council meetings.

"Sounds ugly in there," she observed as a new round of shouting shook the
door.

"'Tis so," Rahaaz replied solemnly, his sense of sarcasm not developed enough
yet to appreciate the understatement.  "Murgonj shall likely demand a duel."

"Good," she answered with a smile as she stepped around the War Captain and
went inside.

----

"Thou hast craft enough, Overworlder!" spat the huge, garishly-armored Servii
as he glowered at Cain, who eyed the Exalted War Chief back just as
poisonously from behind his table.  "That must I grant, but thou'rt not of
us, nor to be trusted by us!  None but a Servii can command Servii!  Most
especially not one who knows not nor cares not for our ways!" Murgonj crossed
his massive arms over his chest and bared a fang at the Time Lord as the
half-dozen warriors he'd brought along glared their own silent menace.

Cain was completely uncowed.  "Look, Murgonj," he snarled, dispensing with
the chief's title and thereby claiming a superior status, "I've said before
and I'll say again, we're just here to advise and assist, not rule you
people.  You can do as you damn well please, if you want.  The only thing
between you and the gate is paved road.  But, if you want my help, you play
by my rules.  You want better weapons, you do as I ask.  You don't like it,
then you head for the High Desert and don't let the gate hit you in the ass
on the way out.  End of story."

The chief hissed his rage as his face darkened to a hunter-green.  "Thou'rt
subtle, too, Overworlder," he growled, subtlety not being a compliment among
the Servii.  "Thy pernicious influence doth spread without thy command.  Thou
pull'st the strings from behind, using the lure of thy wizardry as a bauble
to ensnare the mind.  As thou hast Ghorlok in thy web, so wouldst thou have
us all, abandoning the ways of our fathers in exchange for the aid of thy
power!"

"Hard words from one who swore himself to the Cause of the Sacred Land," a
light voice tittered.  "Hard words from one who swore in blood to set his
heart solely on the destruction of our enemies."

Murgonj stepped back and half-drew his broadsword as Cain's companion seemed
to materialize out of the shadows at his back, a mocking smile on her pale,
delicate face, her cloak pulled tightly to her.

"I fight all enemies of the Servii, even those that lie within!" Murgonj
yelled.

"But, I see no enemies here," the girl said, still smiling.  "I see friends
who have given you weapons and advice that have led you to victory.  And I
see a foolish ingrate who slaps the hand that offers aid, who sets his own
prideful ambitions above the Cause of the Sacred Land, who comes to make
demands of those who have given freely.  What do _you_ see, boastful
Murgonj?"

"Demon-bitch!" cried the Exalted War Chief as he clawed out his sword.  "I'll
not be spoken to thus by a woman!" With a burst of the blinding speed that
had made him a feared leader of the Servii, he leaped forward and drove his
blade through the girl's chest.

The girl staggered back with a gasp as the Servii wrenched the sword free.
She stumbled to the wall, her cloak falling open to reveal a velvet gown the
color of midnight which was already staining with her spouting blood.

Cain didn't move, but just shook his head ruefully.  Babydoll, watching at
the doorway, merely winced.  "Now you've done it," the one-eyed Time Lord
sighed.

Murgonj blinked at him uncertainly, then looked back at the dying girl--

--who was not dying at all, but rather gasping in great lungfuls of air as
the gash in her chest began to slowly seal itself shut.

"Should've used a wooden stake," Babydoll muttered.

The Servii chief stared uncomprehendingly as the flow of blood from the
girl's chest finally stopped and she raised her face to look at him.  Her
eyes, which had before been a bright green, had now gone solid red and her
slight fangs, absurdly delicate compared to a Servii's huge tusks, had grown
much longer.

"I wish," she said, twitching slightly, "that you hadn't done that.  I wish
that you hadn't made me do what I'm about to do." Her light, charming voice
had taken on a feral, animalistic edge as her hands began to clench into
claws.  "I wish," she said, a red tear streaking down her cheek, "that you
didn't have to die like this."

The Exalted War Chief was fast enough to get his blade up as the girl surged
across the table at him, but she merely batted it aside like a child's toy as
she seemed to almost fly up into his chest, her flashing teeth aiming for his
neck.  Murgonj dropped his sword as he staggered back, clawing at the
clinging girl and giving forth a horrid, gurgling scream.

One of the other Servii whipped out a dagger and rushed to aid his chief, but
Babydoll met him halfway there, her knife flickering like silver lightning in
the lamplight.  There was a blur of steel and the Servii collapsed in a
sodden heap, his throat neatly severed.  She met the charge of a second
warrior with a circle-kick that his armor barely softened, sending fragments
of broken breastbone knifing into his heart and lungs.

The other four warriors milled uncertainly as their leader crashed to the
ground, his struggles subsiding as the girl sucked hungrily at the blood that
poured from his neck.

Cain favored the four with a sardonic smile.  "Now, will there be any more
arguments?" he asked.

One of the four, a War Captain by his armor, tore his eyes from the ghastly
feast and stepped forward.  "This deed shall not stand," he declared.  "The
blood of Exalted War Chief Murgonj shall be avenged!"

"The blood of Exalted Murgonj," Babydoll observed, "appears to have become a
one-course dinner."

The War Captain shot her a venomous look, then went on, "As the War Captain
of Exalted War Chief Murgonj, I swear to thee--"

There was a sharp crack and the officer tumbled backward, dead, a bullet
through his heart.

Cain, Babydoll, and the remainder of Murgonj's men all turned to see War
Captain Rahaaz striding through the doorway, a smoking musket in his hands.
"War Chief Ghorlok hath a wise saying," he said solemnly.  "'Always shoot the
mouthy one'.  Words to live by." He turned to Cain and bowed slightly.  "Now,
wouldst see thy plunder, Overworlder?"

Meanwhile, the girl continued to feed on the corpse of Murgonj, quietly
sobbing as she swallowed his reeking blood.

----

(Well, that went a good bit longer than I intended.  Oh, well.  Next?)

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