“Men, prepare arms!” ordered Skrem. His Sontarans aimed their weapons at the group.
“Wait a minute!” called Max. “You can’t just shoot us!”
“I want to see good, clean shots to the head and the heart!” Skrem said to his men. “Think you can manage that, Trooper?”
“Easily, Sir,” replied the Sontaran Trooper.
“Better make that ‘hearts’ plural,” interjected the Doctor. “I’m a Time Lord and we have two hearts.”
“…She has a point, Sir,” a Sontaran said to Skrem.
“Indeed. So, how do you want to do this?” asked the Doctor. “One shot in each heart for me? Four in the head?”
“One shot in one of the hearts and a shot in the head during the regeneration process will suffice, Doctor!” snapped Skrem.
“Ah, read up on when you lot invaded Gallifrey, huh?” muttered the Doctor.
“Just a second, General!” called Rook. “This is against the Galactic Code of Conduct! Who among you has claimed us as your execution targets? Benjamin Tennyson is the object of Vilgax’s vengeance!”
“Of course!” recalled the Doctor. “Article 7, Section 4, Subsection 6, Paragraph 3!”
“…Paragraph four, actually,” corrected Rook.
“The young Plumber and the Doctor are correct,” said Vilgax. “You would kill the Doctor, I would kill Tennyson. That was the agreement in accordance with Article 2, Section 3, Subsection 4, Paragraph 2.”
“Ah, but Paragraph 5 dictates that, in the event of evasion of capture, all targets are viable,” replied Skrem.
“Do you see them evading capture?!” snarled Vilgax.
“Oh, who cares about the rules!” complained Psychobos. “Just do the smart thing for once and k-k-k-kill them!”
“And wound Sontaran honor? Never,” replied the Doctor. “Rook, it’s been a while since I read the Galactic Code of Conduct. Which part of it concerns surrendered prisoners?”
“Article 2, Section 1, Subsection 1, Paragraph 1!” answered Rook. “Vilgax, Skrem, Psychobos, we all surrender in accordance with all that I have outlined!”
“You little-!” snapped Skrem.
“Doc, Rook, what are you two doing?!” protested Ben.
“Doctor, you better have some sort of plan!” hissed Amy.
“No, but I have breathing space to make one,” replied the Doctor. “Sontarans have two basic weaknesses. One is the probic vent on the backs of their necks, the other is their love of military protocol. Rook selected rules concerning surrendered prisoners and those rules are a little more involved than the ones involving fugitive combatants.”
“Ah, the ol’ tie-them-up-in-red-tape trick!” realized Amy.
“They’ll kill us once they figured out that particular knot,” said the Doctor, “so let’s keep adding more. Rook, do you have any electronic form of the Galactic Code of Conduct?”
“Yes, right in my-!” Rook’s smile faded as he remembered. “…Oh… Bralla Da! It’s in my quarters in Plumber HQ!”
“All right, new plan,” said the Doctor. “Follow my lead.” She cautiously led everyone out of the brig as Skrem and Vilgax loudly discussed the finer points of the Galactic Code of Conduct while Psychobos tried to shut them up about it.
The Doctor and her friends approached the bridge’s doors. A few guards were at the doors. “Blast. Knew it was too easy,” grumbled the Doctor. The robots spotted them.
“Intruders!” shouted one. “Put your two hands behind your backs!” Ben grinned, then selected an alien. He slid the Omnitrix’s cover back and pressed the core down. Green light surrounded him and he grew while gaining another set of arms. The light faded and in his place was a four-armed alien with four eyes and red skin.
“FOUR-ARMS!” he shouted. He put his right arms behind his back and used his left arms to punch the robots hard enough to scrap them. The Doctor blinked at the brutality. “…What?” asked Four-Arms. “I put two hands behind my back like he said!”
“That name’s on the nose,” remarked Amy.
“No, it’s Four-Arms,” corrected Four-Arms. “I don’t have an alien called On the Nose, not yet at least. If I did, I’d shout ON THE NOSE!”
“Why DID you shout that name anyways?” asked the Doctor.
“To strike fear into those rust buckets!” replied Four-Arms.
“Believe me,” sighed Gwen, “it was bliss when you stopped doing that, Doofus.”
“Oh, whatever, Dweeb!” scoffed Four-Arms as he used all four of his hands to tear the door off…and he immediately got shot at from the robots already on the bridge. “OW! HEY! THAT’S DIRTY FIGHTING!” protested Four-Arms as he tore through the robots. Once the bridge was cleared, the Doctor got to work. “Doc, whatever you have planned, probably wanna be quick about it,” warned Four-Arms. “Vilgax and his goons are sure to come here soon!”
“I need to find the ship’s archived monitor data,” said the Doctor.
“The what?” asked Kevin.
“Black box, flight recorder,” replied the Doctor. “Professor Paradox said Skrem’s after the Hand of Eon to undo a victory I gained over his clone ancestor, Staal, the original General of the 10th Sontaran Fleet.”
“When was that?” asked Max.
“2009. They were responsible for the ATMOS crisis. While the devices DID reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the cars they were installed in, the Sontarans’ purpose for them was to use them to introduce clone feed into Earth’s atmosphere, turning it into a cloning world, where they would make new Sontarans to fight against the Rutans. I managed to stop him by igniting the clone feed introduced into the atmosphere. …So why would a Clone Descendant use time travel to undo that? Sontarans have strict codes of honor against that.”
“I think the question is why is he so desperate?” asked Kevin.
“…You’re quite right,” remarked the Doctor.
“Um, guys!” warned Amy as she pointed out the screens displaying the footage outside the bridge. Vilgax, Skrem, Psychobos and their men had arrived!
“Well, any chance for answers, I suppose,” muttered the Doctor as she keyed in a command on the console. The comms activated. “I will speak to General Skrem in accordance with Jurisdiction 2 of the Intergalactic Rules of Engagement!” The camera footage showed Skrem step towards the camera.
“Under Convention 5,” he said, “that will be the last bit of protocol you and your friends will ever spit at me!”
“That’s agreeable,” said the Doctor. “I never liked red tape in the long run. So, tell me, General Skrem…since when did the 10th Sontaran Fleet become a pack of cowards?”
“HOW…DARE YOU!!!” roared Skrem. “Doctor, you impugn my honor!”
“I’m glad you chose the words Staal used. Because if you said ‘belittle’, I’d have a field day. But time travel to undo a defeat? Sontaran High Command branded that to be the action of a desperate coward and you know there’s a good reason for that. Skrem, you’ve got an entire fleet at your command, with all the bells and whistles, yet you want to use time travel to undo a defeat and kill Earth in the past! Where’s the fight in that?! Where’s the honor?! …Or, is there a reason behind such desperation? This isn’t the usual Sontaran warfare. How would this contribute to Sontar’s war effort?”
“If only we were permitted to contribute to the war effort, then we wouldn’t be so desperate!” The instant Skrem finished that sentence, the Doctor laughed.
“So,” she said, “the sins of the father are visited upon the son, eh?! Exiled from not only Sontar, but the entire war! That’s how much of a setback the terraforming project of ’09 was!”
“What war?” asked Ben. “I didn’t get that when I was Trohll.”
“The war between the Sontarans and the Rutans,” explained Amy, remembering what the Doctor said. “Who knows who started it and who really cares? All we want to know is how it ends.”
“It will end with Sontaran victory once I undo Staal’s defeat!” insisted Skrem.
“And the Hand of Eon will give you that mastery over time?” asked the Doctor.
“Naturally. …Failing that, though…a Chronosapian’s temporal mastery will serve!” Skrem’s ominous statement made Ben back up a bit.
“…Ben, why are you so scared?” asked the Doctor, worried.
“Just a minute, Skrem!” snarled Vilgax. “We had a deal! You don’t need the Omnitrix’s power!”
“Not its full power, no,” replied Skrem, “but the DNA sample of a Chronosapian will suffice!”
“Hold on, there’s Chronosapian DNA in that thing?!” the Doctor asked Ben.
“The form’s called Clockwork,” replied Ben.
“Azmuth made an agreement with the Time Lords!” hissed the Doctor. “All temporally-sensitive life-forms will be locked unless in dire circumstances! How often have you used Clockwork?!” Ben was denied the chance to answer. Vilgax and Psychobos were thrown through the door, smoking all over their bodies.
“You pitiful, barely sentient root v-v-vegetables!” snarled Psychobos. “And I use the term loosely!”
“You will regret crossing me, Skrem!” promised Vilgax.
“I very much doubt it,” replied Skrem. “I will fade from this timeline, as will the rest of the 10th Sontaran Fleet as it stands, but Staal will make the original iteration of the fleet more powerful and more honorable with its victory through our sacrifice! For the glory of Blessed Sontar!”
“Sontar HA! Sontar HA! Sontar HA!”
“Sir!” called a Sontaran. “Primary objective obtained! It’s on the Command Ship!”
“Oh no!” whispered the Doctor.