At the bow of the Salvation, Gray began putting his plan into action. He'd try and use the manual release to lower the anchors and force the ship to a halt.
He darted for the right-side lever. He pulled hard, almost breaking his back in the process to overcome the locks left by the Sea Devils.
He jolted and heaved with all of his might. The sweat dripped from his brow, his face grew warm with his cheeks flushing red.
With a snap and a jolt, the first one released and the anchor catapulted into the ocean.
Gray jumped and smiled with achieving glee and hurried over to the second one. It was much harder than the first since his pulling power was now depleted, but nevertheless he gave it everything he had.
Argh! Come on! This has to work!
The ship started spinning around towards the sidewalk, being pulled by the right lowered anchor. Luckily, it only took a moment for the other level to finally groan and flip over, allowing the left anchor to drop into the water. Gray was flung backwards with the level itself, ending up on his back, in pain once again. It was starting to become a very painful habit of his that he certainly didn't want to continue. The aches were getting too sharp and agonising.
To his delight however, when he landed he could hear the second snap and splash of the anchor when it plummeting into the river.
The whole ship eventually lurched forward as she was forced to a halt, properly. The anchors worked a charm and the ship was stopped. The water around the bow even started to settle.
'Yes! Holy Holly, yes! I did it! I actually did it!' he shouted in glee, still lying down on the deck, but with his arms raised towards the sky in victory.
This was the big jolt that made Will fly backwards and enforce his retreat to the upper deck. Whilst he had his encounter with Captain Atwood, Gray's own problems slowly started coming to light.
After allowing himself to savour the feeling of success, Gray sat himself up and looked around. His heartrate began rapidly increasing as he turned his attention to his right. The bow of the Salvation.
Before her, the Discovery kept going, charging through the waves strongly and with no hesitation. No one stopping her from continuing the journey.
'Ah, rats all folks' Gray sighed disappointedly as he watched Discovery sail away.
* * *
Kate sat Cassie down on one of the nearby stone stools so she could recover. As desperately as Kate needed her help, that wasn't going to happen until she was calm. She was still too scared and crying her eyes out. She had to drag the courage out of her and get her into a fighting spirit, otherwise she truly might be on her own. Again.
As Cassie sniffled and started breathing steady again, Kate gently wiped the dried mud from her face. Cassie smiled with gratitude. Her chest ached from her panic attack but she couldn't help but feel relieved now that someone else was there. Someone who could help her.
'Thanks. I must look absolutely awful' Cassie muttered through her smile.
Kate smiled back as she continued to wipe her face, 'As long as your alright. This really isn't the safest place to be right now. Don't worry, we'll get out of here'.
Cassie's smile faded as she turned away from Kate and examined the room around her. Heat guns, spears, red lights, weird sounds. It was all so foreign and unusual. So, well alien. Just when she thought she'd had some sort of a grip on all the freaky alien stuff, she got separated from the Huntress and ended up being captured. Some grip on reality.
She started shaking her head furiously. More mud flew off of her head and upper torso. Her mattered hair tumbled out of its tangled bun, flowing loose in mattered clumps with mud weaved through it.
Kate quickly jumped to her feet and took a step back, avoiding being hit by Cassie's head and mud bullets.
'Feel better yet?' Kate asked, crossing her arms and watching her.
Cassie raised her head and blinked quickly in Kate's direction. 'I don't think I ever will be. This alien tomfoolery is beyond me. We do need to just get out of this hellhole. What do you need me to do?'
Kate didn't hesitate to hobble herself over to the main console in the rooms centre and wait for Cassie to follow. She began reading over the screens as she waits.
'This console, Cassie. It has documents from your lab partner, Dr Weller. Looks like you were working on some sort of genetic modification which worked through water. I don't suppose you can enlighten me as to what you were really looking for?'
Cassie forces herself to stand and join Kate by the console, finally getting the courage to look at its screen for herself, acting well and truly afraid of it. She's becomes overwhelmingly shocked by what she witnesses on there, even grabbing Kate's shoulder for support, even though Kate was in no condition to provide it.
'Our data! I mean, not that it really meant much' she started in a stutter, bewildered.
Kate held eye contact and leant forward, urging Cassie to continue.
'Well, the Huntress found what the aliens have been doing to the water. Blood. She said it had to do with something called blood control. But, but I don't know what they wanted us to find. We never found it.'
'And you've made our lives nothing but difficult ever since, brat' came a rough, masculine voice from their left side. The side facing the door to the damp, unforgiving darkness.
Kate and Cassie spun around in dread to find Admiral Ironwood watching and waiting for them, looking more than furious. He was menacing as his body was only just in the light. A shadowy villain before them without a visible face.
Kate forced Cassie behind her back, making sure to protect her. Cassie meanwhile didn't hesitate to hide behind Kate and cower at the familiar terror before her. She recognised Ironwood in an instant without question. Kate however never had the pleasure. Yet.
'Stupid girl. I should have gotten rid of Weller altogether and let Mena take your worthless body instead. Maybe you wouldn't have failed me' Ironwood added. He stood forward a few steps into the room, allowing his whole body to be bathed in light. His eyes glaring, his mouth twisted into a smiling sneer and his posture of that like a soldier. Straight back, straight shoulders and hands to his sides.
Kate kept her body still but let her eyes flicker between Ironwood and the main screen. One of the documents she'd observed caught her attention again, not to mention the heat ray gun she'd left sitting to the consoles side, out of Ironwood's view.
'Ah, where are my manners. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT. A pleasure' Ironwood greeted with his hands swinging behind his back and a cruel grin spreading across his thick-skinned face. Kate never changed her expression, keeping to her usual defence. Seeming unpredictable.
'Vice Admiral Ironwood, I presume' she inquired.
Ironwood's eyes widen and his grin grew. 'Good. You learned more than I'd hoped. That makes everything even more justified!'
Kate and Cassie looked at each other confused.
'And what exactly is justified?' Kate demanded, weary of his answer as if she already knew what he was say, let alone do.
'Well, your deaths of course...' Ironwood began. He eased out an extendable spear from behind him. The tip was some kind of greyish-green metal with veins of plasma channelling through it, making it all the more menacing.
'...Your imminent, painful and totally irrelevant deaths!' he snarled.
Ironwood began skulking forward towards them, like that of a lion prowling around its prey before attacking. Kate and Cassie moved backwards in synch with him. Kate sneakily grabbing the gun with her right hand and hiding it behind her back.
'You humans. That time lord! Everything was going smoothly until you all turned up and started sticking your noses where it doesn't belong. Bloody UNIT. When will you ridiculous land-dwellers understand! This is our planet!'
Ironwood positioned himself in front of the main console and the girls had circled around to the other side. One console between them. Face to face. A scary distance when you think about it, with Ironwood holding a spear of all things.
He pulled his arm with the spear backwards and was ready to launch it. Kate had flung her arm with the gun to her front and began aiming with confidence.
Suddenly, before either of them released their weapons power, the room was filled with Ironwood's enraged yet painful scream.
His hand started burning where he held the spear. It looked like it was burning his hand, was too hot for him to handle. He dropped it with haste and yelped angerly as he gripped his wounded hand. It looking very burnt and scolding red, and the skin was already blistering painfully.
Kate gaped as he watched, still considered holding her shot even though she knew it would be her only chance. 'Do it!' Cassie whispered eagerly in her ear. Kate couldn't believe her ears.
'I wouldn't if I were you' came a woman's voice from the tunnels doorway. A familiar voice.
Everyone turned in astonishment to see the Huntress standing at the mouth of the cave. Her face deadpanned with her sonic gripped tightly in her hand, pointed directly at Ironwood. She slowly lowered her arm and looked over at Kate, face to face and proceeded to smile.
'Let's not have any more killing today. No more deaths' she added with a confident smile, trying to convince Kate that she could escape without violence. Luckily, her plea paid off.
Kate let her tired arms flop to her sides. Even Cassie turned away, disheartened in her own actions. Wanting Kate to shot the Admiral? What was she thinking? She clasped her hands over her mouth to try and silence her ashamed sobs. Her heartbeat raced and her legs weakened. What was she becoming. Could she live with her shame?
Ironwood on the other hand was boiling with unquenchable rage. He's patience was nil.
'You!' he shouted in furious realisation. The Huntress sighed and shook her finger at him, almost dismissing him.
'Hold on. I'll get to you in a minute, one eye. I'm a busy woman you know' she rebutted, making her way casually over to Kate and Cassie, standing in front of them yet face to face with Ironwood with the console between them. Taking her place in the fight, right where she knew she needed to be. Shielding them.
'Huntress' Kate bluntly greeted. Deep down, she couldn't have been happier to see her come to the rescue, but she had to maintain her order. She was a member of UNIT after all and the Huntress after all was still a murderer.
The Huntress nodded back at her. 'Kate. Sorry I'm late. You're not going to like what's happening on the surface. Don't worry though, this is where I need to be.'
'I'll take your word for it'.
'Really? Now that is high praise'.
Kate couldn't help but look away, almost in embarrassment. All this excitement was making her soft. Yes that was it. It must be, in Kates eyes anyway.
The admiral shook his hand in pain and studied it closely. When he raised his eyes to gaze at the girls, he grinned. A very wicked grin at that.
'Well, Time lord. Perhaps it's better this way. With you here in my clutches, there's no way for you to stop those ships. I hope you saver this last meeting. I certainly will'
The Huntress scoffed at his comment. 'You wish. I have some dependable agents aboard one of those ships at minimum. May even be two or somehow three. Well, the last ones not as possible. Regardless, I trust they'll figure out how to stop your little toys. Meanwhile you, your down here away from your plan-in-action. Away from the battle itself. I mean, an admiral hiding away from the grand fight. Seems strange, don't you think Kate?'
'Distinctly' she responded, letting herself smirk slightly.
The admiral did something totally unexpected. He roared with laughter. It was so loud that the guns on the shelves rattled. Kate and Cassie started to feel panicked. The Huntress on the other hand was now convinced that there was something she'd missed. Something obvious. Something important. Her face twisted into a stern darkness, aimed at the admiral with intensity.
'Your human boy-toys cannot stop those ships! How can you stop something that isn't being powered!' he declared proudly.
Realisation and regret spread like a wildfire over the Huntress. It finally hit her. No engines.
She enters a flashback. She's back aboard the Salvation, right at the moment when she stopped to jump over the rail and dive into the ocean. No vibration beneath her feet or noise except for the crashing waves. After she dived in, she saw something out of the corner of her eye but it never registered until now. The propellers. They were still. The boat was moving yet they never turned. That whole startup they felt in the beginning was just the engine being used to get them out of the warehouse.
Kate gently touched the Huntress' shoulder, noticing her frozen in thought. It made her jump slightly.
'What is it? What does he mean by that?' Kate eagerly inquired with a whisper.
The Huntress locked eyes with the admiral as he stood straight and proud before her.
'It means that the boys will have to get creative
* * *
Gray sprinted back into the bridge. Even though he'd somehow managed to halt the Salvation, the Discovery was still charging down the Thames with no one to stop her. He frisked every console he laid eyes on. There had to be something he could do. Maybe something here would give him that spark of inspiration, that one idea he so desperately needed right now.
'Oh, come on! There's gotta be something!' he shouted, sinking deeper and deeper into panic.
He was halted by a slight vibration in his pants pocket. His phone. It was ringing.
Nearly dropping it twice in his fumbled rush, Gray hastily answered the call. 'Hello!' he shouted. He heard the disgruntled moan from Will almost instantaneously.
'Do you have to shout, Broke!' he yelled in reply. Gray smiled through Will's frustration without a single worry. He was just happy to hear someone else's voice.
'Sorry! Oh, right. Sorry. Anyway, did you get those missiles offline?'
There was a brief silence between the two, making Gray grow uncertain. 'No. Their encased and clamped down. The Salvation is a giant bomb.'
Gray's face turned into horror. A giant bomb? This ship was set to implode with no way of stopping it? Why bother stopping the damn thing and letting the Discovery sail away.
'Ya know what, never mind the bloody Salvation. The Discovery's still getting away!'
'Don't worry too much about that. There's a way for me to contain that explosion but we need these ships together. All three. Gray, we need that ship moving.'
Sighing and looking out of the main window to the Thames outside, Gray nodded in agreement.
'Wonderful' he retorted back. 'And how the hell do I do that!'
A strange rumbling started aboard the Salvation. Gray looked all around him, trying to figure out what was going on. All of a sudden, the view changed. Gray watched as his view of the Thames and the cities sidewalks started rising up. The whole ship was being lifted.
The water beneath shifted and became one huge wave, lifting the ship. On the rivers floor, the anchors had just lifted high enough to that they didn't touch. The weight of the anchors were now just a nuisance rather than a stopping force.
Unable to comment due to his state of shock, Gray was finally flung forcefully backwards as the wave rolled itself and the ship forwards. To the people on the sidewalk, this massive ship was now slowly surfing along atop a massive un-crashing wave along the Thames river.
'Well, that's not going to be a problem. We're, uh, the ship may be on a massive wave and is moving again' Gray bluntly observed, unable to express his emotions properly.
'What!?'
'I think you'd better get back up here, Will'.
'I can't, Gray. I'm aboard the Fortress.'