The Amazing Clara Oswin Oswald - Escapologist Extraordinaire. 
                                     
                                     Part 1

  That was what it said on the dressing room door. Admittedly the dressing room was a little smaller that the average changing room in a department store but at least she had her own dressing room, though so did the ventriloquist with the terrible lisp. 
  Clara kicked off her ankle boots, unzipped her jumpsuit and struggled out of the sleeves. She slid it down to her ankles and stepped out of it. Clara looked in the mirror she reached behind her and pulled off her bra then her hands went to her waist. She hooked her panties and pulled them down to her ankles, stepping out of them. 
  Clara recovered her costume from under the shelf. The first thing she put on was a pair of ultra tight, silky black pantyhose she pulled them up to her waist to give her legs a smooth lustrous shine. Tucked into their waistband was a small black clip that was quite difficult to see. 
  She removed her leotard. It was a shiny metallic red colour and she pulled it open at the top and stepped into it. Clara fed her right arm into the leotard then pulled it up to her shoulder. She fed her left arm in and pulled it up. 
  It deliberately had long sleeves and a tall collar so she could hide a few items. She recovered a piece of springy wire and bent it round putting it behind her neck and rolled the collar of the leotard over it. 
  She had a piece of metal about four inches long with two large flesh coloured plasters attached to it. She rolled up her right sleeve then firmly attached the plasters and the tool under her forearm, rolling the sleeve back in place. 
  Clara attached a red coloured clip to the left hand sleeve and rolled the sleeve back on itself so the clip could not be seen. The shiny fabric clung to her attractive young body in a most distracting way. 
  The girl then took out her pair of knee high, front lace-up boots. They were shiny black with a curved solid heel about three inches high. There was a half inch platform on the front of the boots but it was hard to see. Clara picked up the right boot, holding it upside down. She pulled the platform under the toes back to reveal a small device hidden there and taking it out she checked it worked and put it back. 
  Clara pushed a little stud on the back of the boot in a certain way, a three inch grey cylinder dropped out of the hollow heel into her hand. She put it back. 
  The laces in the boot ran from just under the knee to just above her toes. Clara checked there was a pull tab to help get the boots on there was a second tab just under it she pulled it there was a long piece of curved metal concealed there. Clara pushed it pack in place. 
  She checked the left boot. At the top of it around the edge was a line of leather. A small tug and a flexile blade appeared. Clara carefully edged it back in place. She checked the toe of the boot, a tap in the right place and a key would drop out. Clara stepped into the boots and laced them up tightly. They comfortably fitted her feet yet moulded her legs and bottom to ensure anyone was looking elsewhere.
  Clara picked up the mini waist-clincher. It was black silk and seemed to be laced up at the front. Clara reached behind the laces. 
  The whole panel swung away to reveal a full set of lock picking tools. She checked that each one was securely in place and carefully put the panel back. 
  Clara gritted her teeth, took a deep breath and wrapped the waist-clincher around her. There was a hidden clasp at the back. Clara breathed-in a little harder and click, the clasp engaged. The clincher added to her sexy, distracting curves.
  Clara picked up her open fingered black gloves, they were wrist length and she turned the left palm over back on itself. There was a small key on the inside in a little padded pocket she did the same with the left glove, there was a small round device inside and she put both gloves carefully on. 
  The brunette shook her hair out. She applied her make up including red lipstick that matched her leotard. As a last effort Clara carefully pushed two long clips into her hair where they could not be seen. 

  Clara waited in the wings of the stage, her props sat on a two layered black trolley. The stage was quite large and Clara waited for her cue to enter, she put her microphone in her ear. 
  The cue came a little early as the previous act exited the stage. A short bald man in a blue suit wiped tomato off his face with one hand, in the other he carried a ukulele holding it to protect his head from any more ballistic vegetables. A stage hand nudged Clara and she put on her best hip rolling wiggling walk. A sign was projected onto the back of the stage-
            THE AMAZING CLARA OSWIN OSWALD – ESCAPOLOGIST       
                             EXTRAORDINAIRE!
  Clara sashayed out onto the centre stage, her trolley following her and cried;
    “Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! I am Clara Oswin Oswald-escapologist extraordinaire!” Clara paused for dramatic effect. “For tonight’s performance I will need an assistant from the audience.” Clara muttered under her breath, “-Because the management is to cheap to get me one!” A number of younger and older men looked at the trolley full of restraints looked at the girl in the tight costume and their hands shot up!
  Clara avoided the accidental fondlers like the plague. She pointed to a conservative looking woman in a business suit;
    “Please give the lady a round of applause!”
  The woman stood up and took a short bow. Clara watched her climb on stage. She was five feet eight about thirty with a grey top, grey knee-length skirt all very smooth very tasteful. Her shoes were seven inch heels with a one inch platform adorned with spikes, spurs, chains and straps. Clara got a sinking feeling in her stomach;
    “May I ask what’s your name and what do you do for a living?” 
  The woman spoke in a very thick accent;
    “I Am Mistress Pain-Professional Dominatrix.”
 
 The doctor had sold Clara on this adventure he had told her it would be easy a cruise ship it would hardly be work, they would just turn up then they could relax and enjoy the facilities. The Tardis was locked away safely in one of the smaller cargo containers, they had there bags. They secretly met the ships captain who gave them a list of the few senior crew members she trusted. After that was they had investigated the ship for signs of a plot to steal a very valuable cargo. So Clara had spent a lot of time talking to a lot of very important but very boring people in her spare time. Then there was the show she had to spend a lot of time actually maintaining a cover as a performer on the ship. And she had to sleep and the cabin was tiny! and she didn’t really have any money to spend in the little spare time she had Clara was starting to think the doctor had over sold this place. 

  Clara gulped involuntarily;
    “Anyway, on with the first performance,” she paused, “...I will now attempt to escape from a pair of rigid handcuffs with an integrated waist chain!”
  Mistress Pain’s eyes sparkled as she picked up the big solid pair of ridged hand cuffs that were connected to a length of chain. She passed the chain around Clara’s waist, got it below the waist clincher and pulled.
  Clara felt her stomach squeezed as the woman made sure that the chain was tightly digging into her tight body. There was a click and a big chunky padlock was ensuring that the heavy chain was locked around her waist. 
  Mistress Pain pulled Clara’s right hand into the rigid cuff and shut it tightly, she double locked it. She pulled Clara’s left wrist into the metal’s tight embrace and double locked it in place. The handcuffs were locked with the key holes facing away from Clara’s hands making it harder to escape. Clara showed the audience how tight the cuffs were locked;
    “Thank you Mss Pain. Okay, now for the escape.” Clara demonstrated how solid the cuffs were. She started to gyrate and wiggle. As she turned around the audience saw her pert bottom with the big heavy padlock and chain above it. Clara turned full circle and her hands were free! She turned around again and held up the complete restraint. The audience clapped.
    “For my second challenge I will now attempt to escape from a tight, rubber straitjacket!”
  Mistress Pain’s eyes professionally measured up the straitjacket. She picked up the heavy rubber mass. Clara held her arms out in front of her and the woman fed one arm then the other into the straitjacket’s rubber embrace. The rubber was very tight but also very stretchy. 
  Mistress Pain fastened the straps down the back of the jacket one by one. She started near the collar and pulled every strap closed all the way. She fed the buckles from each rubber strap back on themselves to make them harder to get at.
  Clara’s torso was trapped in a tight, rubbery vice. Miss Pain pulled the crotch strap punishingly tight between Clara’s buttocks then she wrapped Clara’s arms around her waist. There were no front or side loops.
  Clara felt the woman’s knee in the small of her back as she pulled and she felt her arms becoming really tightly restrained. Then they were buckled in place.
  The brunette showed the audience how she could barely wiggle inside the rubber restraints;
     “Thank you Mss Pain.” Then, under her breath, “Okay, now for the escape...” Clara demonstrated how tight the jacket was. She wiggled and wiggled gyrating her entire body. She managed to get some slack in the rubber as it heated up, then she slipped one arm up and over a shoulder-her arms were free. Clara was able to reach down and undo the crotch strap.
  With a bit of fumbling Clara rolled the tight rubber off her body and over her head. She stood on the jacket and used the leverage to pull her arms free. Clara panted and adjusted her hair, she held up the conquered restraint. The audience clapped louder this time and she continued with her act;
    “For my third challenge I will now attempt to escape from a pair of high security mitten-cuffs. These restraints cover the whole hand making them very secure.” 
 
  The Star-Ship, The Morning Star was vast, over 6000 meters. She was very dull in design, a big grey box with an engine on one end and a navigation array on the other, the design shared by several other cargo haulers. 
  Part of her, a large part had been retrofitted as a cruise ship after she lost some of the bulk haul cargo contracts. She did have a diverse array of entertainments from casinos to theatres and a very nice selection of bars and restaurants. They never showed the ship except from very far off in the promotional material, the adverts always showed the destinations and the facilities. She had very powerful engines and carried a diverse cargo, passengers, colonists, equipment, ore to be refined-anything and everything. 
  She flew through a ring pattern around the galaxy starting at earth reaching the outer spiral and returning back. 
  The Morning Star was always willing to carry any cargo or person if it meant she could be full up. She carried some very important cargo for this leg of the run. Following her were three earth military ships the frigate Hannibal at 450meters long, the brig Charger at 200 meters long, a torpedo ship that punched hard but had little armour or shield and the brig Sabre at 220 meters long she was slightly larger and acted as a fighter carrier with four squadrons of Javelin Mk II fighters in her bays.   
  The ships were of common design-a diamond shaped sensor and navigation cluster at the front, a fat cylindrical module 50% of the length of the ship and behind that the main body followed by an octagonal engine module behind that. Above and below the main ship were weapons modules shaped like equilateral triangles. Of course the paying passengers didn’t know about the escorts, it was better for business. They did not generally write good reviews when they knew that the company was deliberately putting their lives in danger! 
    
  Mistress Pain picked up the restraint it looked like two leather eggs the size of a person’s hands attached to a rigid set of hand cuffs. The cuffs would secure over the lip of the leather. 
  Mistress Pain turned Clara around so her round bottom faced the audience. She pushed Clara’s right hand into the mitten, secured the cuff and double locked it. She pulled Clara’s left wrist into the mitten and secured the last cuff, double locking it in place. 
  The handcuffs were again locked with the key holes facing away from Clara’s hands making it harder to escape even though her hands were in the tightly padded mittens. Turning around, she theatrically struggled to show the audience how tight the cuffs were locked;
    “Thank you Miss Pain. Now for the escape...” Clara started to gyrate and wiggle. She turned around once, twice and her hands were free-she held up the defeated restraint. The audience clapped a little louder.
  Clara bowed;
    “For my fourth challenge I will now attempt to escape from a high security seven fold discipline hogtie restrain system featuring wrist, ankle, elbow and neck cuffs.”   
  Mistress Pain’s eyes glistened as she picked up the big pile of rigid bars and cuffs that clanked and jingled as she moved them. Clara lay on her stomach, her side to the audience. 
  Miss Pain attached the cuffs around her wrists at one end of the rigid bar and double-locked them. She pulled Clara’s elbows back sharply clicking the cuffs around them she double locked those. 
  Miss Pain pulled her right leg back and locked her ankle in place she pulled Clara’s left leg back and locked her ankle in place, double locking the ankle cuffs. Clara’s bound body formed an attractive bow shape. 
  Miss Pain pulled Clara’s neck back and then slipped a heavy U shaped bolt under her chin there was a click and Clara was rigidly held in place in an even more pleasing bow shape. 
  Clara struggled but she had very little movement. She showed the audience how tight the hog tie was;
    “Thank you Mss Pain now for the escape!” Clara started to rattle and gyrate as much as she could. She rolled over onto her side, the restraint away form the audience. There was some rattling then Clara’s left leg was free. More rattling and her right leg was free. Some more time and she pulled her right arm free. Clara pulled her left arm free then removed the collar. 
  She stood up tottered in her heels and held up the restraint rattling it. The audience clapped.
    “For my fifth challenge I will now attempt to escape from a high security Posey straitjacket.”
  Mistress Pain’s eyed up the straitjacket. She picked up the heavy white canvas. Clara held her arms out in front of her. She fed Clara’s arms into the straitjacket’s tight cosy embrace. The canvas was very tight but critically, as a restraint hardly stretched. Mistress Pain fastened the straps down the back of the jacket. She fed the buckles from each canvas strap back on themselves to make them harder to get at.   
  Clara’s torso was trapped in a tight white cocoon. Miss Pain pulled the crotch strap punishing tight between Clara’s buttocks the fabric almost disappeared. She wrapped Clara’s arms around her waist through the front loop then through the side loops.
  Clara felt the woman pushing on her elbows to get it tighter. Clara felt her arms becoming totally immobilised then they were buckled in place. Clara showed the audience how she could barely twitch inside the canvas;
    “Thank you Miss Pain. Okay, now for the escape.” 
 
  Clara demonstrated how tight the jacket was. She wiggled and wiggled gyrating her entire body. It took a lot longer, over a minute went by before she started to get some movement in her arm. She managed to get some slack in the shoulder of the jacket, over the next half a minute she was able to pull her arm out of the sleeve. 
  Clara worked her hand between her legs and undid the crotch strap. She was able to reach and undo the lowest strap then she reached the next highest and so, with a bit of fighting, Clara rolled the canvas off her body and over her head she held up the conquered restraint. The audience clapped.
    “For my sixth challenge I will now attempt to escape from a Padlocked arm binder, this leather restraint holds the hand behind the back-it will be the most challenging yet!”
  Mistress Pain picked up the restraint. It looked like a leather sleeve dripping with straps there was a small pile of padlocks. Mistress Pain had an evil smile she turned Clara around. The audience could see what was going on. Mistress Pain pulled the tight black leather sheath up over Clara’s hands. The leather was so tight she had to hold her hands very tightly together palms pressed into one another for them to fit. 
  One strap went over Clara’s right shoulder then under her left. It was drawn tight until it painfully cut into her flesh. There was the click of a small padlock. A second strap went over Clara’s left shoulder & under her right, it was drawn tight forming an X shape, it painfully cut into her flesh, drawing her elbows back. There was the click of a small padlock. 
  Mistress Pain slowly sealed the two halves of the arm-binder together with padlocks. Clara’s elbows were pushed together until they met. Her shoulders were wrenched back uncomfortably and there was little space between her forearms. A grunt of pain escaped Clara’s lips. 
  Miss Pain found a strap that ran from the wrists position of the arm-binder hard up against Clara’s back a tug on it and it pulled Clara’s arms higher up her back. She pulled with all she was worth and Clara found her elbows sticking back, forced into an L shape. She cried in pain as the padlock clicked in place. 
  Miss Pain wrapped a strap tight around Clara’s waist and one strap from that waist strap to join the tip of the mitten on the end of the arm binder travelling between Clara’s legs, she ensured it was punishingly tight and Clara’s arms were severely restrained. 
  The Dominatrix turned her around so she could show the audience her handy work. Clara struggled to show the audience how merciless the arm binder was;
    “Thank you Mss Pain,” she grunted, “... now for the escape...” Clara‘s voice lacked conviction. Clara started to gyrate and wiggle, she turned around once a padlock dropped to the floor. She turned around again another padlock hit the floor. Eventually her hands were free and she worked her aching shoulder then held up the black leather. The audience clapped and cheered.
    “For my seventh and final challenge I will now attempt to escape from a custom made leather straitjacket with integrated discipline hood and hobble skirt. This has side loops and my arms will be secured behind me for extra security.”
  Miss Pain’s eyes lit up at the straitjacket, she was really going to enjoy this! She picked up the heavy black leathers and Clara stepped into the jacket.
 Miss Pain worked the hobble skirt up over her legs until it was skin-tight. Clara held her arms out in front of her and the woman fed Clara’s arms into the straitjacket’s tight, black embrace.
 Mistress Pain fastened the straps down the back of the jacket as tight as possible. She fed the buckles from each leather strap back on themselves to make them harder to get at. Clara’s torso was trapped in a skin tight leather cocoon. Clara held her jaw open and let the dominatrix stuff the large plug gag in her mouth. Miss Pain tightened the hood over her head. She pulled Clara’s arms back and wrapped them around her waist through the side loops.
  Clara felt the woman pushing on her elbows to get it tighter. Clara felt her arms going numb and they were buckled in place behind her. Clara showed the audience how she could not speak and barely twitch inside the leather;
    “Thmmmmm ymmm Mmmm Pmm.” “omm nmm  fmmm tm emmm!” Clara demonstrated how tight the jacket was. She wiggled and wiggled, gyrating her entire body. One minute went by and her struggling became more intense, two minutes went by Clara seemed to be tiring after four minutes it actually seemed to be getting tighter. There was no slack at all! 
  The lights turned off then on and Clara was gone so was Miss Pain. The audience scratched their heads then clapped.

  The Captain of the Morning Star, Balar Cree had been a drinking buddy of one of the Doctor’s previous regenerations. She had run into the Doctor when she was a cadet stuck in a tiny Earth training ship stuck between Sontaran and Rutan fleets, they had survived and ended up in a bar.
  She had then proceeded to challenge the Doctor to a drinking contest and drink him under the table. The Doctor had received a call from the Captain Balar Cree. She wanted his help, so he had agreed. 
  Clara had been willing to spend a week on a luxury cruise ship in space enjoying amenities that had not even been invented yet, to help out but before they had arrived on The Morning Star the Doctor had spoken to her;
    “We need to be discreet. We have to blend in.” Then he had presented her with her disguise and Clara looked at him on eyebrow raised;
    “Seriously, you couldn’t come up with a better disguise as a cover story?” 
  The Doctor shrugged his shoulders;
    “Well, it was a spur of the moment thing...”
  Clara’s eyebrow raised again;
    “Spur of the moment! How come you had all this stuff lying about a cupboard in the Tardis and the costume?” 
  The Doctor shrugged. So Clara had become The Amazing Clara Oswin Oswald - Escapologist Extraordinaire and the Doctor was maintenance engineer second class-Stanley. Clara thought, ‘If you’re an escapologist, having a mad man with a sonic screwdriver at the back of the stage for when you get stuck helps a lot!”

  The Doctor spent the last few days going over every part of the ship looking for trouble. Not the usual sort of trouble, but any hint of someone trying to steal or interfere with the very important cargo locked in the secure cargo deck. 
  It infuriated him that the Captain had not confided in him the exact nature of the cargo. After prodding and poking in the ships systems, he still didn’t know what it was. He decided that there were two possibilities. Either the Captain didn’t know what it was or more likely she just liked the idea of his frustrated stewing at not knowing!
  The Doctor maintained his cover story of being maintenance engineer second class-Stanley but he had fixed so many problems on the ship over the last two days, it was almost as many as he had caused, tinkering... The false identity meant that he had a pass card to almost every part of the ship it meant he could have a legitimate reason to poke his nose in anywhere. He loved it.
  The Timelord was wearing a maintenance jump-suit as part of his cover but he didn’t notice he had acquired a small little clip-on tag with MAINTENANCE written on it. 
    “Was that really magic?” The Doctor pondered whilst looking around for Clara but there was no sign of her or her volunteer from the audience. He checked for the tracker in her costume. The entire costume and every little gadget the Doctor invented to help her was inside a rubbish bin next to the stage. He went to the nearest computer terminal but it told him that there was no passenger called Mistress Pain. The Doctor’s sonic screwdriver picked up something a very small-a vibration, a trace of a local teleport. 
  He quickly calculated the angle, rushing out of the theatre and into the corridor, up a level an into a turbo lift;
    “Hello!” He addressed the other passengers, breezily, “I’m the...Stanley (sharp thinking there Doctor-like a knife! He congratulated himself), yes, yes. THE Stanley-the one and only, like the Steamer or the trunk! No, wait it’s a steamer trunk, not a Stanley...” The Doctor realised the others were backing away, two of them hiding their children behind them-he was gabbling again, he must stop that! “Anyway,” he cried, “...essential maintenance!”
  Quickly, the Doctor pressed a precise destination on the controls. The turbo lift started and the Doctor overrode its safety protocols to make it get there faster. 
  The lift stopped and the other passengers got out, clinging to the walls and thanked the gods they were alive! The Doctor ran down another corridor-his sonic screw driver was picking up a fading signal...
  They had been clever. The teleport signal had been bounced several times. He took readings of the fading signal, looking intense then made a general stab in the direction on where the signal had been re-routed from. He headed off again down the corridor a right then a left. He ran down the corridor of the ship jumping into another turbo lift and the Doctor arrived at his destination. He checked, there was no signal anywhere. The Gallifreyan thought about it for a second, part of the com’s system may still have an echo of the reading. 
  The Doctor jumped, clapping his hands. He knew exactly where to go. He climbed through an access hatch into a service duct and scanned the telecoms sub relay. The faintest echo of what he wanted was present. Off the Doctor headed for what he hoped was the final access address and Clara.
  The Doctor borrowed one of the station’s parcel delivery carts, a little adjustment with a sonic screwdriver and he was off at a speed not dreamed of by its manufacturer!
  Through the main duct system he flew and into a turbo lift shaft. Dodge one turbo lift, a second-child’s play. Then the wall wasn’t where it was meant to be and the Doctor was muttering under his breath;
    “Any landing you can walk away from is a perfect landing!” He dusted various bits of the delivery cart off his clothes and scanned for the deteriorating transport signal. Nothing, he was either too late or Clara was around here somewhere. The Doctor looked around;
    “Clara, are you there?” The ship seemed to be deserted. Then the Doctor noticed someone, a maintenance engineer first class. He had a blank look on his face and he seemed to be moving without any purpose. The Doctor shrugged his shoulders-he usually blundered into things anyway, “Well, I don’t have a better lead to follow...” The Doctor discreetly followed the maintenance engineer in a trance-like state. 
  He could detect a pattern with the maintenance man’s movements. It wasn’t really a precise pattern but the way he moved. He was under some sort of external control. The man was being controlled with relatively simple thought commands. There was a broadcast somewhere and he needed to find it and shut it off. The maintenance engineer 1st class was working a pattern, the Doctor finally remembered it. It was the same pattern he had used when he was trying to take a peak at the contents of the high security vault. He had found someone trying to get in. 
  Finally a clue! He would soon find whoever was controlling this poor dolt and hopefully they were the ones that took Clara. The Doctor continued to walk, following the brainwashed man.

  Clara looked around her. She was standing on a yellow brick road there was pleasant countryside left and right and she was walking forwards. Her hair was platted in pigtails with blue ribbons. She wore a pair of three inch high red strap on shoes they were tied onto her ankles with little pink bows. She had frilly white knee high stockings held in place with blue garters & topped with a little blue bow. 
  Clara was wearing an abbreviated little light blue check pattern dress ending in a frilly white trim. The dress had a low scooped neck that showed off a generous amount of cleavage. The sleeves of the garment were quite long and she seemed to be hugging herself rather tightly. Clara tried to pull at the sleeves they would not budge she was inside a sort of straitjacket dress!
  She looked to her right there was a tall Hispanic girl who wore three inch, brown open toed shoes a pair of mustard yellow tights. A sort of legwarmer wrap of brown fur from her ankles to her knees. She had a short mustard yellow dress that just hit four inches below her hips and covered her boobs. It was edged with brown fur. Her long silky hair cascaded down her back and she wore a pair of cat ears trimmed with more brown fur. She wore elbow-length, mustard yellow gloves and she swung a yellow consume tail ending in a fluff of brown fur. 
  Clara shook her head. She looked to her left to see a tall, pale blond walking down the road next to her. She had brown knee high boots, with a three inch heel. The boots came with a couple of theatrical patches on them and something it looked like straw tied to the ankle. The woman wore a short faded blue skirt, it was trimmed with a dark gold tassel that looked like straw and again there were a couple of patches on it. 
  She had a short cropped top on in the same faded blue, the arms were baggy and there were a couple of holes cut in it showing her shoulders but it was very tight on her cleavage. The outfit had been topped-off with a floppy light brown hat with a cute little point on it. 
  Clara looked further left to see an oriental woman wearing a silver costume. She had a silver painted axe thrown over one shoulder, silver boots with a two inch wedge heel that came up over her knees. She wore a silver dress it went from a short skirt just kissing her underwear to her neck, there were curved silver shoulder pads and a little heart shaped cut out over her chest. The outfit was topped off by a cute little silver hat, shaped like a funnel.
  Clara looked around, she had to be dreaming. The cowardly lion reached over and kissed her on the lips. The scarecrow then slapped Clara on the ass. Clara felt the tin woodsman advancing to cop a feel. She clicked her heels together;
    “There’s no place like the Tardis, there’s no place like the Tardis!”
  She dreamed she was floating on a fluffy white cloud. The cloud stated to get thinner and suddenly was too thin, she was slipping through it! Clara started to fall downwards faster and faster. Then the dream was gone and she woke up with a strange fuzziness to her head. 
  She realised she must have been drugged and by something fruity. Her head felt odd, like someone had stuffed balls of cotton wool in her head. She tried to blink but her eyes would not open, there was something pressed against them. 
  Clara was on her knees bent over in a ball. She tried to get up only to find she couldn’t rise. There was something rubbery over her head. In-between her lips was a chewy ball. Her neck seemed to be locked in a comfortably padded but secure cut out like a pillory lined with padded leather.
  Clara tugged at her arms but they were inside some sort of tight straitjacket wrapped around her torso-she could feel a central loop and side loops. Her legs were encased in some sort of rubber tights and there was a tight crotch strap making itself at home. There seemed to be a cuff around both her ankles joined with a short strap about three inches. Clara began to realise she was also in a cage. The tips of her toes touched the back bars and if she stretched, she could bump her left shoulder against it. 
  She wiggled her bottom upwards and hit cage. It was a very small cage. She had been stripped of every stitch of clothing and every escape tool she originally possessed.
  Clara felt a hand reach-out and touch the top of the hood. Clara tried to pull back but she really had nowhere to move. The tip of a finger traced a line down the hood, slowly it stopped on her nose lingered there for a few seconds then moved down over the gag and onto her chin. Clara felt some thing press against her cheek gently. She thought someone had kissed her on the cheek. 
  The back of the cage must have had a hole in it. Clara felt a hand gently stroke her bottom, she tried to wiggle but the cage was too tight. The hand was gentle, smooth-a woman’s. The exploring hand worked its way between her buttocks then pulled the crotch strap up. 
  Clara struggled as much as her tight confines would allow;
    “Doctor where are you? Help me!” Clara screamed into her gag. 
  The hand worked its way between Clara’s legs and started to massage her there. A glow began in Clara’s crotch and started to spread. Clara felt her body responding to the woman’s touch, she was panting, her nipples were as hard as bullets and there was a burning heat between her legs. Her knees were pressed hard against the side of the cage her toes were tightly curled;
    “Actually Doctor, you can save me in a couple of hours, maybe days if you want...” She mumbled into her gag.
  The hand withdrew just before Clara could get anywhere and she felt a hand on the back of the hood, the hood stretched slightly. A clasp released then a second Clara felt the hood pulled away she blinked in the light. Her eyes looked around, her head was foggy.
  The room was quite large and Clara could not see the ceiling. There were chains hanging down from the ceiling with cuffs and shackles attached. There was a set of stocks, a hanging cage that looked like it was tightly tailored to a woman’s form and it looked like a woman in a full body suit was crammed into it. Clara’s eyes focused on a closet it was full of restraints that made her magic act look like two bits of string.  
  There was a rack with canes and whips and paddles. Clara felt very vulnerable-she gulped. There was a nervous feeling at the pit of her stomach.
  In view was a comfortable chair and sitting on it was the woman that had been her ‘assistant’ on stage earlier. The woman would have been five eight even without the heels. She looked in her late twenty’s and wore a royal blue leather cat suit-it finished at neck and wrists. 
  A tight blue waist clincher gave her some fantastic curves. She had an ample pair of breasts and sexy legs. She was wearing elbow length leather gloves they were very tight, she wore the same seven inch heels with a one inch platform adorned with spikes, spurs, chains and straps. 
  Clara was in a silver cage she wore a blue straight jacket and tights. The woman wore her hair pulled back she had bright blue lipstick matching her catsuit. The woman fixed Clara with a look;
    “I am Mistress Pain. You will speak only when I talk directly to you. You will not lie, you will not hesitate. You will refer to me as Mistress Pain and that only. I will un-gag you but do not speak unless spoken to.”
  Clara looked at Dominatrix Pain. She walked over to her and removed her gag. Clara worked her jaw. Clara felt brave and did something stupid;
   . “Okay, you PAIN what makes you think you can do this to me, you and what army?”
  The gag went back in Clara’s mouth very fast;
    “That was regrettable slave.” Mistress Pain said she walked over and pulled something out of a draw. Clara’s eyes went wide as saucers and Mistress Pain spoke; “On naughty little girls this works better than an army!”

  The Doctor noticed more and more of the people in a trance. They seemed to be senior people, people that might be able to access the secure cargo storage or the systems around it. He noticed at least one of the Maintenance Managers was affected.   The first grade Maintenance man he was following met the Manager but then the Doctor switched to following the more senior Manager then the one he was following met a Communications Manager. 
  This one was carrying something. The two of them spoke and exchanged the package and the Doctor reasoned whoever wanted the cargo and was controlling the people, wanted what was in that box. 
  He followed. Soon he would follow the strings from the puppet and meet the puppeteer. The Doctor noticed still more people behaving oddly.
  The maintenance manager headed into a remote part of the ship and the Doctor quickly found himself in a maze of cables and pipes-the nerves and arteries of the ship. The rooms were full of equipment that regulated the atmosphere, processed the oxegen and the sanitation. For a ship as large as the Morning Star its mechanisms were equally impressive. 
  The Doctor caught sight of the maintenance manager again then he saw a familiar silhouette. If it was who he thought it was then he knew the control method. Someone had upgraded their technology, refined it. 
  He saw the bony outline again it was definitely a Sycorax. The Manager in a trance bowed to the Sycorax and gave him the box. The Sycorax looked in the box and the Doctor could see it was payroll hard credits. The Sycorax carried a large dagger or a short sword and some sort of pistol. Looking at him, the Doctor saw he was nervous. Either this was one step in the plan and they were trading the money for something to get them into the secure cargo bay or this Sycorax had a deal on the side. The Doctor was sure he would find out soon.

  Clara worked her jaw as the ball gag was taken out again;
    “Mistress Pain, thank you.” Clara was not going to give any back talk this time. Mistress Pain patted her on the head;
    “Good, Slave girl-what’s your full name?” 
  Clara’s lip trembled;
    “Mistress Pain, My Name is Clara Oswin Oswald Mistress Pain.” 
  The Mistress stroked Clara’s cheek;
    “Slave, are you a stage performer?” 
  Clara felt her mouth opening;
    “Mistress Pain, no I am a school teacher, Mistress Pain.”
  The Mistress moved behind her;
    “Slave, what are you doing here, were you fed up with being put in detention?”  
  Clara felt she had no control;
    “Mistress Pain, I came here to try and find any evidence of a plot to steal the cargo in the secure bay, Mistress Pain.” 
  Clara’s eyes started to water. Why couldn’t she stop herself from talking? 
  A leather covered hand rested on her bottom;
    “Slave, do you know what is in the cargo bay?”
  A tear flowed down Clara’s cheek;
    “Mistress Pain, no I don’t Mistress Pain.”
  The Mistress paused;
    “That is good. Slave are you working alone?”
  Clara would never betray the Doctor, never. A second tear rolled down her cheek;
    “Mistress Pain, I am working with a man called the Doctor. We are reporting to the ship’s captain Mistress Pain.”
  The Mistress smiled;
    “Good slave, what race is this man the Doctor?”
  Clara would rather die than betray the Doctor’s secrets! She tried to bite on her lip, but a third tear rolled down her cheek;
    “Mistress Pain, he is a Timelord, the last one, Mistress Pain.”
  Mistress Pain walked over to Clara, bent down and kissed her tears away;
   “Good my little slave. It’s over now, I am sorry that I had to do that to you but I needed to be certain.” She petted Clara. “Slave, it will wear off in five minutes. Do you wish me to release you, or do you wish to experience all the pleasure and pain the blue lotus club has to offer?”
  Clara opened her lips she could not stop herself;
    “Mistress Pain, as my mistress wishes Mistress Pain.”

  The Doctor followed the Sycorax for twenty minutes through the maze of maintenance decks. Finally they headed to a part of the station where small cargo modules were rented out for short hauls. The cargo drops between one port and another for individuals or small companies. The Doctor was sure that the Sycorax was heading for one particular cargo bay next to the cargo lock. He was up a service ladder and in a catwalk above the bay in a split second. There was a battered looking transport ship. It was twenty meters long and thin. There was hardly any crew space. Someone had sloppily attached extra weapons modules to it ruining its lines. 
  Just before the Sycorax got there, the hatch to the ship opened and a tall, Amazonian woman stepped out. She wore brown knee high leather boots with an inch and a half heel. She had an armoured dress suit on, a shoulder gauntlet and a steel cap. She carried two lazer pistols and a cutlass. She was followed by two more similarly dressed women. 
  One was missing a leg but it was cybernetically replaced. The other had a hand cybernetically replaced. She had a lead in that hand that disappeared into the ship. The Doctor recognised the uniform, if that was the correct word. They were Members of the Amazon Pirate Alliance. He froze. They were pirates and drug runners and slavers. This was getting interesting...
  The Doctor watched as the space pirate tugged the lead, three helpless half naked women were lead out of the ship. There was a woman of afro Caribbean decent an Indian woman and an oriental woman. The space pirates like to make sure that there captives had nothing to hide, so each girl was nude, trapped in a tight harness as a result and tightly gagged.

  The restraints were made of brown leather. There was a high, solid collar with a large ring riveted to the front. There was the yoke shoulder piece of the jacket and the top of a jacket to just below the armpit. The sleeves of the garment ended in tight mittens. There was a strap leading down from the collar to the waist it held a front loop and a strap that ran around the waist of its victim. 
  Each woman had their arms fed through the front loop. Behind the back there was one strap for the collar, three straps for the back of the jacket between the shoulder blades. There was the waist strap and the tight arm strap. Each woman was completely exposed and totally helpless. The Doctor though he had heard them referred to as bolero straight jackets before now.
  Each woman sported a very large black ball wedged so deep and so tight in their mouths it cut into them and drew their lips back. They had a harried, desperate look to their faces and their hair was everywhere. 
  The Sycorax appeared he marched over to the pirate and he held out his hand. The lead pirate handed over a data pad;
    “Just what you asked for, brains-the little one is an award winning physicist. The skinny one is the designer of the new hyper drive engine efficiency regulator and sweet cheeks here,”-the pirate patted the afro Caribbean woman on the ass, “...is an engineering major who has already got fifty patents in the field of power distribution systems.”  The Sycorax nodded, pleased. 
  The pirate looked at the money and shook her head;
    “This is half what we asked for. Go get the other half and come back!” 
  The Sycorax gestured two. The pirate looked at him;
    “Okay. Two days-fine.” 
  The Sycorax picked up the money and left. The frightened women were bundled back into the tiny ship. The Doctor wavered for a minute, indecision gnawed at him then he followed the Sycorax. The sooner he could deal with them the sooner he could save the slave girls. Unknown to the Doctor, the maintenance badge he was wearing had detached itself and was now lying on the floor beeping.
  The Doctor followed the Sycorax back through the maintenance maze, back into what appeared to have been a redundant storage tank system. He watched the Sycorax open a water-tight door, enter and then shut it. The Doctor waited a minute and followed. The room was empty. There were crates used as old furniture but there was more. One part of the room had been converted into a sort of shrine. One area looked like a scientific laboratory. At least one of the Sycorax was a scientist. The Doctor looked through the place. There was one box marked-up as medical records. It looked like it was from the ship’s medical library. It contained a patient record and a blood sample on file for every crew member. It made sense to the Doctor;
    “The Sycorax have a boffin with them who has been able to change their parlour trick, blood-control technology into something more useful!” Somehow they’d got into the ship’s medical records and they had access to blood samples for targeted blood control of every officer on the ship!
  There were four Amazon space pirates inside the vessel, plus three captives in their little hanging nets. The Amazon pirate in charge reached into a slave net and began to casually play with her helpless charge, the feeling of power over this helpless woman was intoxicating. They would wait here a few days, get there money then there were other plans in motion. 
  She was distracted, there was a creaking on the side of the pirate alliance vessel and a red light showed on the control panel check thrusters. The leader sent one of her girls to investigate. The pirate got out and looked at the port side thrusters. The thruster had been pulled away from the ship! It lay on the cargo bay floor there were indentations on it like a human hand! 
  The space pirate gulped as something landed behind her. She turned around. There was an android of about six foot six with four arms and glowing purple eyes. 
  The android moved in a blur. The pirate found her gun snatched out of her hand while the android’s hand was tightly pushed over her mouth to stop her screaming. The pirate saw the needle extend from the android’s index finger a small sensation and the pirate collapsed to the floor asleep. The leader gestured the two other pirates drew their blasters and headed out of the hatch. The minute her boot touched the deck the first pirate felt a prick in her leg a hand withdrew quickly the pirate collapsed to the deck. The second pirate tried to follow the blur. It was too late, there was something behind her, a poke in the neck and she too fell unconscious. 
  The last pirate stood next to the door waiting. There was a creak from the hatch and it was ripped of its hinges. The pirate felt her gun knocked out of her hand. Her vision blurred as something grabbed her around the throat and lifted her off the floor. The pirate felt a pin prick in her arm and went to sleep.

  The Amazon space pirates woke up. Their heads hurt, they were humiliated, they had been stripped of their weapons and their clothing! Their arms were painfully secured behind their backs. 
  Each pirate had received a pair of elbow length fingerless mitten gloves glued onto their arms. The right sleeve had a complex strap the left sleeve had a ring in the end. There right arms had been pulled up behind there back to form a V then the strap went around there necks. Their left arms were folded into the same position, the strap from the right arm was fed through the ring on the right then the strap was folded back on itself and secured in place. A tight wide belt had then been wrapped around the folded left arm and the bicep of the right arm secured in place the bent left arm prevented it from moving down and the shape of the arms prevented it from moving up. 
  A large red ball gag with a wide strap filled each pirate’s mouth and each wore a thick rubber diaper with a punishingly large butt plug, they were also stuffed into there own slave sacks.  
  A nurse android stood over them she spoke;
    “FOUR SPACE PIRATES - CRIMINALLY INSANE. READY TO BE TRANSPORTED TO AN ASYLUM SHIP, READY TO BEGIN ADJUSTMENT SO THEY CAN BE REINTEGRATED INTO SOCIETY, THREE VICTIMS TO BE TRANSPORTED TO ASYLUM SHIP TO UNDERGO POST TRAUMA COUNCELING PROGRAM.” 
  None of the pirates looked happy as the nurse turned to them.
    “I AM NURSE SAMANTHA ADIST BUT YOU MAY CALL ME NURSE S. ADIST I WILL OVERSEE YOUR REHABILITATION.”

  Clara was glad to be out of the neck stock and the small cage. She was still in the straitjacket. She was sitting down at a table with Mistress Pain, a hot cup of tea in front of them. Mistress Pain would take a sip then she would hold the cup up to Clara’s lips and Clara would take a sip. Mistress Pain looked at her, lost in thought;
    “I suppose I took some liberties with you Clara, you have permission to speak freely.”
  Clara felt some sort of switch in the back of her head turn off. Clara looked at her she shook her head;
    “How dare you! Who are you to do that to me?”
  Mistress Pain sighed;
    “Very well, my name is agent Pain. I work in the intelligence division of Earth’s military. I was investigating potential threats to the shipment, same as you.”
  Clara looked at her;
    “So you have the right to grab anyone off the street, tie them up and torture them in any way?”
  Agent Pain smiled at her;
    “That’s basically it. I must admit to a substantial amount of job satisfaction...”   
  Clara pulled at the jacket;
    “If you know I am on the same side as you why am I still in this jacket?”
  Agent Pain looked at Clara like she was a naughty child;
    “One-you look cute in that straitjacket, two-you’re an amateur that’s likely to get killed if you poke about in this affair and three-you might get me or one of my fellow agents killed protecting you!”
  Clara looked at the agent. There was frustration in her eyes;
    “I don’t suppose you know what’s there?”
  Agent Pain shook her head;
    “My dear, on that matter I know as little as you do.”
  Clara looked at the agent;
    “What did you do to me to make me talk?”
  The agent thought;
    “It a device called a slave field, its very temporary but powerful mind control it is only used under license between two completely consenting parties, normally.”
  Clara stared daggers at her;
    “How come the ship’s Captain invited the Doctor to protect the shipment if your people are here?”
  The agent took a sip of tea;
    “The ship’s Captain doesn’t know we are here, we didn’t tell her every security measure we have in place and she didn’t inform us of all her security precautions. We didn’t know about you and the Doctor. I thought you were trying to steel the cargo.”  
  Clara took another offered sip of tea;
    “Why did you disguise yourself as a Dominatrix?”
  Agent Pain smiled;
    “I like the toys and over half the people I interrogated begged to be interrogated! Anyway, why did you use an escapologist as your cover, do you like being tied up?”   
  Clara looked away. She blushed and tugged at her tight little straitjacket. Clara looked at her;
    “Ok forget that. Think on this, I am with the Doctor-I can look after myself, I can help the Doctor to help you. Please let me go.”
  The agent sat and thought about it;
    “The Doctor can do more harm than good. He does not follow orders or respect the chain of command. In fact, he could end up working against Earth forces best interests if he sympathises with someone else.”
  Clara took an offered sip of tea she did not like where this was going. Agent Pain continued;
    “The Blue Lotus has a block of kennels I could lose you there as a collared slave girl for the rest of the trip...” Clara did not like that idea, mostly.
  Agent Pain took a sip of tea;
    “On the other hand the Doctor does recruit from all of time and space, there has to be something about you to make it worthwhile.” The agent sighed, Clara eagerly anticipated freedom. The agent shrugged her shoulders, “Okay, I will let you out. There is a lead I haven’t investigated yet. Someone is steeling medical records from the medical offices aboard the ship. We think its some petty insurance scam. That is what it has all the hallmarks of. However, I suppose I should have someone check it out, you can do this for me. I will give you a pass and a communicator.” 
  Clara looked at her straitjacket. Agent Pain sighed, “-and a change of clothes.”  
  Clara relaxed as agent Pain gestured to her to turn around. Finally she was being released from the straitjacket!

  The Doctor looked at the two dozen Sycorax. The leader he had an ornate, Skull shaped helmet. He wore a red robe and looked uneasy. 
  He spoke to his lieutenant, the one the Doctor had seen earlier trying to get slaves;
    “I do not like this strategy. There is no honour to it, we skulk and we hide in this ship. We should either be strong enough to take something or wise enough to leave it!”
  The Sycorax scientist looked at him;
    “I assure you my leader, it will work. My targeted blood control makes the humans do whatever we want them to.”
  The Doctor watched the leader’s slightly weaker but smarter subordinate. If the Sycorax didn’t believe in honour and martial strength the leader would have a dagger in his back! The alien continued;
    “When we have the contents of that cargo bay we will have the raw materials to build ten thousand star drives! I am acquiring scientists capable of doing that. Soon we shall found a new empire of the Sycorax!”
  The leader looked uncomfortable.
    “Others will join us. Honour and glory will flow to you my leader, slaves and tributes are assured!” 
  The Doctor stepped into the chamber and a dozen Sycorax looked at him-weapons drawn. He pointed to the chief and issued him a challenge in his own language. The leader laughed and stood up;
    “Short blades or long blades?”
  The Doctor smiled;
    “Long blades.”-and dodged the blade as it landed in the floor where he had stood a moment ago! The Commander smiled and swung. The Doctor ducked, blocked and parried. He stepped into the commander and smashed him in the face with the pommel of the sword. 
  The Commander staggered back, he spat out a bit of tooth grinned and charged back. The Timelord dodged a whirlwind of blows, he knocked the leader’s sword away and brought his own around to strike the leader in the face. 
  The flat of the blade struck the leader, breaking a bit of his cheek bone. Bleeding, the leader stood up he smiled;
    “A worthy opponent!” He attacked again, his blade whirling in a murderous arch. The Doctor ducked under his attack and caught him in the jaw with the edge of the cross bar on the blade. The floored Sycorax leader stood up and put down his sword;    
    “I am bested. What would you have me do?”
  The Doctor picked up his blade and walked over to the blood-control device, he switched it off assertively.

  The cargo bay was described on the ship’s manifest as containing a large geological sample being shipped for study. In reality it was a small Sycorax ship. The cargo bay doors opened and fifty metre long ship shot out of the bay. Commodore Bell had them on his screen;
    “Prepare to fire!” A signal appeared on the commander’s intercom screen-it was the Doctor;
    “They’re beaten, harmless-now let them run home!” 
  The commodore looked at the Doctor;
    “I have my orders.” 
  The Doctor looked at the commodore;
    “If you want to do it that way.”
  The Hannibal had the Sycorax ship on its main targeting sensor. Something jammed them and their energy weapon went wide for a second. The commodore was furious as the Sycorax ship jumped into hyperspace and disappeared. Commodore Bell looked at the screen. It was the Doctor again;
    “There are some pirates with hostages in one of the cargo bays.”
  The commodore looked at the Doctor;
    “The pirates I know about. They’re already under lock and key according to The Morning Star’s chief security officer but you, Doctor will be in my brig and then your going back home for trial!” 

  Clara didn’t like her change of clothes very much. She wobbled in the precarious high heeled shoes. She didn’t like the tight little red dress much either. She was continually pulling up the top half and pulling down the bottom half. The underwear was practically non existent. The medical centre was split across the ship. There were four medical stations and one main, better equipped medical centre. Clara had been directed to check out the medical station the furthest away.
  Clara walked into the medical office using the access pass, it looked porcelain, white. There was a large cylindrical booth that had auto doc written on it and here appeared to be no one about. Clara saw a medical terminal was just sitting there. Clara pulled down her excuse for a skirt and sat down. She tried to access the records to see what had been going on with the pass.
  Unknown to her there was a beeping from a side room and suddenly someone else was in the room. Clara twisted around to look behind her, there was an android. The android was tall, six foot six. It had four arms, one set slightly below the other. The android had a blue gray tone on her artificial skin and spoke;
    “I AM NURSE CLAMP YOU ARE NOT AUTHORISED TO BE HERE.”
  Clara swallowed;
    “I have a pass.” She held it up. 
  The Android’s creator had gone a long way to make her very feminine. It wore a pair of strappy white high heeled shoes that ending in a pencil thin heel. The android had shapely sculpted legs, feminine hips and a waist that must have been only fourteen inches wide. It also had a very well endowed bust. The android looked at her with its piercing, purple eyes above high cheek bones and large pouting lips. 
  Clara got out of the seat she started to edge towards the door;
    “I am working for the Captain, checking something out.”
  The android took two steps forward;
    “A LIKELY STORY! YOU ARE TRYING TO ACCESS RESTRICTED MEDICAL FILES.”
  Clara held the pass out in front of the nurse as she backed up;
    “Look. Check with the Captain-she will confirm my story!”
  The nurse looked her up and down;
    “I WOULD NOT BOTHER THE CAPTAIN WITH YOUR LIES. YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY DELUSIONAL AND REQUIRE HELP.” The android stepped closer to Clara and snatched the pass from her hand. 
    “Hey, give me that back!” Clara shouted with indignation but the android’s hand closed on the pass and there was a grinding crunch. The nurse dropped a handful of silver splinters and dust that used to be the pass.
  Clara felt a whimper pass her lips. She turned and ran for the door. Her finger was just about to brush the exit button when she was yanked back landing on the floor. The android had her left ankle-a tight grip on the shoe. 
    “Let go of me you crazy Terminator wanabe!” Clara kicked the android for all she was worth. There was a dull thud that the android barely noticed;
    “YOU WILL GET APPROPRIATE PHYCHIATRIC TREATMENT AND RESTRAINT.”
  Clara felt her toes go numb she hoped she hadn’t broken anything in her right foot. The android found she was only holding Carla’s left shoe, while Clara skittered across the floor of the medical station and hid under a tray;
    “Get away you cylon in a dress!”
  The android dropped the shoe and advanced on Clara;
    “COME OUT OR I WILL PULL YOU OUT.” 
  Clara crawled on her hands and knees away from the nurse trying to get behind the auto doc then maybe she could get into the other room to see if there was another exit there;
    “Get away from me, get away from me!” She shouted. The nurse vaulted over the table, her arm reached behind the auto doc and snagged Clara’s excuse for a dress. Clara felt the dress loosing its grip on her body;
    “Let go of my bloody dress!”
    “PLEASE COME QUIETLY.” There was more tugging and then a snap and a topless and mostly bottomless Clara was running across the room for the other door;    
    “Stop leave me alone!” 
  The android was holding a flimsy scrap of material that used to be a dress.
Clara was down to a micro latex thong and one shoe, the room she had escaped into had no exit and the nurse was fast approaching;
    “Please let me go! You’re making a mistake!”
  The nurse advanced on her;
    “TIME TO GET YOUR MEDICINE, LITTLE GIRL.” 
  Clara took her remaining shoe off and threw it at the nurse, it bounced off her shoulder. She stepped up to the nurse and punched her in the gut. Not her smartest idea, Clara let out a cry of pain and clutched her hand her knuckles were on fire. The android’s hand clamped over Clara’s mouth her arms were pulled behind her back. Her thong was removed and her cheeks blushed red. It came to Clara that she could have been easily overpowered at any moment. The nurse had just been playing a game with her. 
    “WE HAVE A LOVELY NEW RESTRAINT DESIGNED FOR LONG TERM WEAR IT CONSITS OF A STRAITJACKET, COLLAR GAG AND DIAPER COMBINATION, WE ARE RUNNING A MEDICAL TRIAL.” The nurse walked Clara over to a locker and pulled out a big silver bundle. Clara eyed it up with trepidation. “THE RESTRAINT ABSORBS, COLLECTS AND PROCESSES ANY BODILY FLUIDS THAT IT’S PRISONER PRODUCES. THESE ARE SANITISED AND REUSED- SIMILAR PROCESSES WORK WITH ANY OTHER BODILY WASTE. THE PATIENT IS KEPT CLEAN AND FRESH AND CAN BE LEFT FOR MANY DAYS WITHOUT THE NEED TO BE FED OR WATERED EXTERNALLY.” Clara’s eyes turned into saucers, there was no way she was being put inside that horrible contraption!
  The nurse had other plans, however and Clara could barely even twitch in her grip. She was made to step into the thickly padded silver diaper. It was drawn up her legs then pulled up firm against her crotch gripping her pelvis and bottom tightly. Clara was forced to put her left arm in one sleeve and her right arm in the other. The back of the jacket closed tightly of its own accord. Clara tried to protest but the thick shaft of a gag was forced into her mouth as the bottom of the silver collar clamped around her jaw and neck. To complete the outfit, her arms were pulled around her body and locked in place. The jacket was fairly loose and comfortable at least, Clara thought. 
  The right shoulder of the jacket started beeping Clara’s eyes focused on it and a blue L.E.D. display indicated TIGHTEN. Clara gasped into the gag as the diaper section of the garment seemed to adhere to her body, like it was vacuum sealed on. 
  Suddenly the thick material clung to her bottom and between her legs ever so tightly. The jacket clamped down tight around her hips. Then the section around Clara’s waist was pulled in, the jacket became tight over her ribcage. A second later Clara found her breasts uncomfortably squeezed. The collar tightened and Clara had no movement in her neck. Clara found the muzzle over her mouth squeezed down then there was the gag plug. It expanded like a balloon, larger and larger. Clara felt the arms of the jacket move. The material tightened with a vice-like grip on her arms and hands, the strap joining both arms then shortened.
  Clara screamed at the nurse with indignation;
    “mmm mmm mmph!” 
  The nurse leaned over to Clara;
    “SORRY I CAN’T HEAR YOU. YOU SAY YOU WANT IT TIGHTER?” Clara tried to shake her head NO but the nurse tapped the symbol on her right shoulder and it got a lot tighter, “THERE, THERE-NURSE CLAMP WILL MAKE IT ALL BETTER, A MONTH IN THAT JACKET SHOULD BE A NICE TRIAL RUN.”   
  Clara struggled futilely. A month trapped in this thing? No way! Where was the Doctor? The nurse’s arm was around Clara’s waist;
    “TIME TO GET YOU TO A NICE QUIET PADDED CELL.” Clara felt a needle poke her in the buttocks and suddenly her vision swam.

  The cargo module had been delivered to The Morning Star for transportation two weeks ago. It was an incredibly dull shipment of water sanitisation processors at least that was what it said on the cargo manifest. 
  There were two dozen bored Sontaran’s inside the cargo module. They were at a state of high alert as they had been for two weeks. They were waiting for a precise time in The Morning Star’s journey when the ship would be in position and they could spring into action. 
  A team would get to the bridge and knock out the communications then a second team would go to engine control and disable the engines, a third team would infiltrate the ships security control centre and disable it and the fourth team would take the cargo. Their ship would arrive and they would transfer the cargo then leave. The cargo wouldn’t win the war against the Rutan host but it would help. 
  The Commander, Vixx wished he had some spare men because if he did he could shoot the one in front of him and not miss him. The Sontaran in question had asked, “Is it time to proceed with the plan, Commander?”-every fifteen minutes for the last two weeks and it was really getting on his nerves!
  There was a clattering about the cargo module’s roof and the Sontaran’s were suddenly quiet. They had their helmets on and their weapons trained on the noise. It sounded like someone was walking about on top of the cargo module. 
  There had been a few routine inspection passes in the two weeks they had been waiting. Suddenly a massive force hit the side of the container. There were six consecutive breaches before the Sontarans could react. Six imposing creatures invaded the compartment. 
  They had mouths full of fangs, eyes like spiders’, large clawed hands and their back legs were powerful. They were covered in a mixture of shell and fur, they had tails that ended in shapes like a kitchen knife, basically six sharp ends, six ways to die. The creatures fell on the Sontaran’s, they ripped into their armour at the joint between neck and body one came in close to the Commander then turned to another target and leapt. 
  Six of the Commander’s men fell. The Sontarans blasted the creatures-the hounds dropped dead. Vixx looked around. He only had eighteen soldiers! The mission was compromised and from the hissing noise there were more of the creatures outside...  
  One of his men popped his head into the hole created by the entering creature and he fell back, a green slime over his face. The slime ate through his helmet and skull below. The creatures had some sort of spitting attack. They piled in, another wave- twelve this time. 
  There was chaos! Vixx looked around, he had ten soldiers left including himself and they could hear more of the creatures outside. The hounds struck in an overwhelming wave. A humanoid stepped into the compartment behind the creatures he wore some sort of formal suit. Vixx was not sure what the species was. He had not seen a humanoid with the gray skin like that before.
  Vixx watched the gray humanoid pull a pair of pistols out of his pockets in a blur, two blasts and his last two men fell. Vixx tried to avenge them, his gun rose to shoot the man down. 
  At the last moment one of the hounds jumped in the way. Vixx tried for another shot but a hound clamped down on his left arm. Vixx tried to draw his back up weapon but he found another hound clamped to his right arm. Vixx was pulled down by the weight of the two beasts and held to the floor. 
  The gray man stepped over to him;
    “I am clone 1423, I am a high quality copy.”
  The Sontaran shouted at him;
    “I will kill you! You will die in pain as will your race! I will burn you from the cosmos!”
  The clone 1423 smiled, he prised the helmet off the Sontaran Commander. The clone looked at the Sontaran;
    “What is the command code for your ship?” 
  Vixx looked at him;
    “Go and jump out of an airlock!”
  Clone 1423 did not look happy he crushed the Sontaran’s helmet in his hands and dropped it to the floor. The clone’s index finger elongated into a needle point he thrust it between the temples of the Sontaran Comander. The Sontaran looked at him with defiance;
    “I will resist.” The skin around the finger began to turn black and the Sontaran screamed in rage, “I will,” more of his flesh started to turn black, he managed, “I...” he trailed-off and stopped moving.

  The Doctor was now running full pelt away from some of Commodore Bell’s men. They had taken a considerable dislike to the Doctor’s interference in their protection of the cargo which was understandable. Humanity had to rebuild their fleet after the last Dalek offensive and if there were as many of the rare materials in the secure hold that the Sycorax thought there was then Earth could build ten thousand new ships! 
  He ducked under a dozen bean bag rounds that slammed against the opposite wall. The Doctor despised people with guns, especially when they were shooting at him...  
  There was a bit of appreciation for the fact that it was less than lethal rounds. They were only planning to knock him down, beat him up and throw him in a jail cell.
  The Doctor moved faster. He was around a corner when something that looked like a net flew past him and hit a wall, sparks of electricity danced over it. The Doctor ducked lower and ran faster. Then a door opened, it was someone in ship’s security uniform not military. 
  The Captain had sent someone to help him. Surreptitiously, he ducked into the doorway. The military forces rounded the corner to find nothing.

  The Sontaran ship waited, hidden behind an asteroid. Its weapons were ready to destroy any that opposed it, its hold empty ready to receive the cargo. The Commander looked over at his monitoring station. The ship should have stopped now. His orders were clear, if the strike team failed then he had a small window of opportunity to attack and disable the ship then steal the cargo. 
  One of his bridge officers pointed something out on a monitor. Something broadcast a signal to them. Behind them, an asteroid moved. It unfurled, the asteroid was over a kilometre long it seemed to be alive, an actual creature! It was formed of a black squid-like body with a set of twenty of thirty tendrils trailing from it as propulsion and a red shield sprang up around its body. 
  Missiles like thorns shot forwards and balls of plasma hit the ship. The Sontaran commander was surprised and angry. The creature had gotten the first hit! He ordered his ship to return fire but there was nothing. The first signal that the creature had broadcast had disabled his weapons, turning them off and overriding the computer. His ship was hit harder. It was starting to take some real damage...

  Clara was awake again-she thought she was awake again... She was walking through a woodland, wearing a ridiculous costume. Two inch high mid calf length lace up leather boots a pair of fishnet stockings she wore a red dress, the dress barely covered her hips it had a black lacy finish and a white ruffle under it she had a red front lacing corset. She had a red hood and cape she seemed to have wrapped the cape around her arms and she was hugging herself she didn’t seem to be able to let go the cape was quite tight over her arms. There was a sign on one side of the road GRANDMA’S HOUSE. Clara realised she was carrying a wicker basket, her jaws wrapped around the handle.
  Someone stepped out from the shadows. There was a blond woman nearly seven feet tall. She seemed to wear a hood made from a wolf skin, a grey leather cat-suit and a wolf skin cape flowed out from behind her;
    “Little red I am just going to have to eat you.” Clara dropped the basket and ran as best she could. The Wolf clicked her fingers.
   Clara felt her hood close over her head. Her mouth was sealed, her eyes enveloped. She found herself running off into the woods she tripped over a log and landed in a bush strong hands pulled her out of the bush and pinned her down. 

  The Commander gritted his teeth. Sontarans never surrender, never retreat-they faced there enemy head on with honour! His weapons may not have been working but his engines did. Hitting that creature with his ship like a battering ram was the only offensive capacity he had. The ship’s shields started to fail and he gave the order;
    “Full power to sub-light engines!” 
  His ship started to speed up, closing in on the bio ship. The shield failed and the superstructure started to take damage. The Commander gritted his teeth, waiting for the impact. At the last moment the creature seemed to roll gracefully out of the way. He screamed in fury;
    “Adjust the heading, ramming speed!”
  The superstructure of his ship failed. It started venting atmosphere and his engines were damaged critically. The Commander flailed in fury, striking his command console;
    “No! No, no …” The engines on his ship were overloading, he had twenty seconds before they went critical. The bio ship had stopped firing. It was waiting out of blast range for his engines to finish the job. A Sontaran was meant to die in honourable battle, not like this! The Commander was sure it was a deliberate insult as his ship exploded.

                                     Part 2

  Clara was patrolling quietly through a city street on the trail of someone, she tried to remember who. She walked past a dumpster and a couple of bins. There was something strange going on. She saw a sign- WELCOME TO GOTHAM CITY.
  Clara looked up. There was a big circle of light in the night sky with a bat on it. She shook her head as she approached a puddle. Clara looked at her reflection and groaned.
  She wore a pair of impractical, black thigh-high boots. The things reached her mid thigh and clung tightly to her legs like they were painted on. The heels were at least four inches high and pencil thin. She had a tiny black leather skirt that was edged to look like batwings, a tight leather top which clung to her chest also with a scooped neck line. 
  A big yellow bat with curved wings was plastered over her cleavage. She had a leather cape that came down to just above her knees and a vaguely bat shaped Halloween mask. A punishingly tight yellow utility belt waist clincher was about her middle and her arms were folded, crossed just below her leather coated breasts. A few tugs and she confirmed she was in a tight bat-straitjacket.
  Someone stepped out of the shadows. It was a very curvy woman. She had a pair of four inch purple pumps and a tight purple spandex skirt that came to mid thigh. Looking up, she had a little tight light green waist coat that barely contained her assets with three little black buttons. 
  She had a purple jacket that came to just her elbows and was open. Her face was painted chalk white, her lips crimson red. The woman had big hair that had been dyed green which matched her waist coat. Her outfit had a little collar thing, one of the old fashioned ties. A green bow tie, Clara thought? She was also carrying a purple riding crop and a confident expression.
  Bat-Clara turned around to find another curvy woman behind her, she had somehow been forced into the tightest rubber cat suit Clara could imagine. The suit was split in four from the belly button. Right bottom side red left top side red. Left leg black right arm black. There was a pattern of 3 diamonds pattern on most sections with the red black reversed. She wore a pair of inch and a half lace up ankle boots. She wore white gloves with large floppy white cuffs. She had an open faced rubber mask coloured half red half black, colours alternating with the suit. The hood had two floppy ears or tails like short pig tails she had a large floppy white collar. Her face was painted white her lips impish red.
  Clara suddenly found her lips stretched open by a bat-ring gag. Suddenly the woman in the rubber cat suit had Clara in a tight embrace they were kissing whether Clara wanted to or not! The crop landed on Clara’s Round bottom and she jumped, her cape shortened to allow better access to her bottom. Clara tried to kick out with the high heels only to find her ankles locked in a foot long bat-spreader bar. Clara felt the second blow and her bottom stung;
    “Get me the bat out of here!” Clara mumbled through the other woman’s tongue.
  Then she dreamed she was floating above a fluffy white cloud. She ploughed into it and began falling downwards, faster and faster! She had a parachute but she had to escape from a straitjacket to get to it! The ground was getting closer and the jacket was too tight!
  She struggled on. Then the dream was gone. She woke up and there was a strange fuzziness to her head. She realised she must have been drugged again-it felt like the same fruity junk. Her head felt odd someone had stuffed a pillow between her ears! Her head spun. 
  Clara realised she was walking in the horrible jacket, she was bare foot. That nurse Clamp was leading her forwards, one hand on the collar. Clara tugged on the jacket, nothing. The nurse barely gave her any attention. 
  Suddenly there was a commotion in the corridor. Someone in a vendor’s jumpsuit reached out and pulled Clara away from the nurse. Before the nurse could react a heavy duty loader was driven into her crushing her against a wall!
    “CEASE AND DESIST THIS IMMEDIATELY!” The nurse started to push the heavy duty loader back. Two people came up to the android with heavy duty hull plate cutters, used for the repairs to the external hull plating. Clara could see the jets of energy and sparks. The android was losing the battle against the loader. Finally the loader was able to fully pin the android against the wall. The two people with the hull plate cutters kept working. 
  The driver of the loader got out. He had some sort of automatic energy rifle it looked expensive and heavy. He levelled it point blank range at the android’s head and pulled the trigger. By the time the rifle had emptied the chamber, the android’s eyes went dim there was a large hole burnt in the side of its head. The loader pulled back and the people with hull cutters set about dismembering the android. Clara was terrified as she was dragged onto the loader. One of the people planted some sort of bomb over the remains of the android, there was something in-human about these people Clara thought! There was a loud explosion as the transport moved away.

  The Doctor was impressed by the Earth Military, they did know the layout of the ship very well but they had planned for almost any type of problem associated with a shipment of this sort. The Doctor had avoided a lot of security people in his life and he had spent several days on the ship already. And the ship’s crew were helping him evade the military. The Doctor figured a few more hours and they would decide he was more trouble than he was worth. 
  One of the ship’s security officers had lent him a key to the security monitoring sub station. The Doctor decided that now would be a good time to resume the search for Clara. 
  He had enough time to sit down at a security station and run a sweep through the CCTV records. The Doctor found one hit outside one of the medical stations. He scratched his head and zoomed in on the image. The Doctor checked the monitor. That was definitely her!
    “Clara what the hell are you wearing? That hardly constitutes a belt!” The Doctor headed for the medical station, to find Clara.

  A small delivery droid moved down the corners of the ship, it came to a section of corridor that had been blown up there were blackened fragments of metal an inch to two inches across all over the floor. The delivery droid confirmed the location and dropped the package on the floor in front of the debris. 
  The splinters of metal started to vibrate then one or two of them seemed so be attracted to each other. The splinters glowed for a second as the two contacting pieces welded themselves together. The smaller sections of metal began to come together to form larger fragments. Slowly as if attracted by a magnet the pieces came together. The larger pieces started to cluster together to form a ball. The ball began to form dedicated shapes linking and locking together a crude skeletal form materialised.
  The crude skeleton became more complex forming into a complete humanoid form. The skeletal metal construct started to pull up cables and mechanisms joints modules formed. A skin of silver metal began to form over it and the android’s eyes glowed purple! Its features became less skeletal until it was a near complete woman, an artwork with four arms....
  The metal skin was fully-formed and started to secrete a synthetic layer of material creating a mimic of human skin tone and complexion. Synthetic hair started to sprout over the android’s head. 
  The highly anatomically accurate android stood up to full height. She stalked over to the box and picked it up. The android pulled on a tight rubber nurse’s uniform;  
    “THIS IS NURSE CLAMP TO COMMAND, THEY HAVE TAKEN THE BAIT. THEY HAVE PICKED UP THE PACKAGE.”
  The nurse straightened her dress then stepped into her thin high heels, she walked calmly back to the main medical centre.

  Clara was taken to a luxury cabin on one of the cruise decks but the place looked odd. Her drug addled mind was starting to wake up. There were quite a lot of people but the rooms did not look like they had been lived in. 
  The other people around her holding her hostage her they looked distant not real like an image of a person if that was possible. Clara looked at them carefully they didn’t act like people being controlled or nervous mercenaries or professional mercenaries. They acted like someone dressed for a role but without much idea how to play it. Clara was sure that they were aliens. She was pushed down onto a seat. 
  A tall bald man turned to a thin middle aged man in a brown outfit;
    “Hook Jaw, now we have this one, how do we get information out of her?”
  The thin middle aged man turned to Clara;
    “Strong Arm, it’s only a matter of knowing which button to press.”
  The alien hook jaw tapped Clara on the right shoulder of the straitjacket, deflated the gag and released the muzzle. The alien ‘Strong Arm’ pulled the gag out of her mouth;
    “What is the code for the secure cargo storage hold?”
  Clara worked her jaw;
    “I am not telling you. What are you gonna do?”
  Hook Jaw went to hit her and Clara flinched. The other alien stopped him;
    “Again Strong Arm, it’s about knowing which button to press.” The alien tapped the control on her right shoulder again. Clara felt the jacket tighten down below and squeaked in pain;
    “I don’t know the code!”
  Strong Arm continued;
    “You do know those that do, however. You can tell us how to get to them!”
  Clara clamped her jaw shut. The alien got closer;
    “I can do this all day.” A simple tap on the control panel and Clara was doubled over in pain! Hook Jaw looked at Strong Arm as he casually pushed Clara back in place. “With the contents of that cargo hold Strong Arm we will gather our people and found an intergalactic empire for our brood!”
  The Doctor arrived at the medical station. The clinical, porcelain white-it reminded him of something he had seen before...
  The technology reminded him of The Core-a little robot that punched at battle cruiser weight. The medical units in the ship were modules that could be taken out and replaced. They were a subcontracted service so a different medical company could slot their service centre in, in its place. 
  The Doctor was not familiar enough with the technology to know if it was general medical tech or specific to The Core. He was able to get into the system easily. It almost seemed too easy... 
  Then he saw a committal file for a woman matching Clara’s description, the Doctor’s fingers turned into a blur, he saw the transfer note. Clara had been sent to the main medical bay but according to the records did not arrive. The Doctor checked through the ships logs. Someone clever had turned off cameras and deactivated the internal bomb alarm. The Doctor headed for the location.

  Clara was panting deep shallow breaths. That was all she could manage with the tightness of the jacket. 
    “Give me something I can use.” The alien-Strong Arm threatened. Clara shook her head and screwed her eyes shut. “There are so many more options on this fascinating device.”
  The other alien turned to Clara;
    “Would it help you to talk if you knew you were at the mercy of the Krillitane?”   
  Clara looked at hook jaw blankly. The alien was insulted;
    “If she is of no use, at least we have lunch!”
  There was a knock on the door. It opened and another dozen of the Krillitane walked in. As soon as the door shut, the display on Clara’s right shoulder started to beep. 
  The aliens moved back. Clara watched her restraint start to turn into dust, the particles began to fly around the room and the creatures began to change into their true, gargoyle like forms. 
  Clara’s vision blurred, a cloud of silver particles was every where! Strong Arm cried out;
    “Nanites-a trap!”
  Clara realised that she was completely free and completely naked! There were howls then muffled gurgles. Her vision cleared. There were fewer particles of silver moving about. Clara looked around the gargoyle-like aliens. They were all coated in silver, there movements seemed to be frantic but slowed like someone trying to swim through treacle. Her restraints had been a trap for these aliens when they all got near it, then it activated. The last of the creatures stopped moving they were all encased in a hard metal skin made of tiny robots. Every Krillitane was frozen on the spot, some quite comically. Now all Clara had to do was find something to wear!
  She was halfway to the closet when the doors to the apartment opened. The ship’s security in full protective combat armour bundled in and the two dozen security officers pointed there side arms at Clara;
    “Ship’s Security, freeze! Resist and we shoot. We had a tip off that aliens planning to steel the special cargo were here. Freeze!” 
  Clara raised her arms;
    “Alright, I’m frozen, I’m frozen!” A female security officer pushed her to the ground. “I am not with them, honest!”
  The officer responded;
    “Honey, your’e either a collaborator so we arrest you or you’re a witness so we put you in protective custody. My jobs the same either way!”
  Clara was naked again with a security officer sitting on her. A large rubber bit gag was pushed between her jaws. It was pulled back, cutting into her lips. There was a noise like a zip tie it was not going anywhere!
  The security officer brought out a device made of plastic one large open ring joined to an open cylinder flat on the back. The ring was clinched tightly around Clara’s middle. Her arms were pulled behind her back, folded wrist to elbow in a box shape. The cylinder closed over her doubled up arms keeping them tightly in places. Clara was lead away again into a security transport. As soon as she was sat down the officer looked at her;
    “We were warned about you so we have this.” Another needle was jabbed into Clara’s naked flesh and she blacked out again.

  The Doctor arrived at the spot where the cameras had gone down. There was evidence of quite a powerful explosion and a lot of superficial damage to the area. There was evidence of ship’s cutting tools and high energy weapons fire but little else apart from a garment box. 
  The Doctor looked around, his confirmation of The Core walked around the corner. Where The Gray Man was, The Core was due to follow. He looked at The Gray Man;     
    “No, there‘s something wrong. You’re not The Gray Man, not even close! You’re a clone but a stronger one.”
  The gray-skinned man clapped;
    “Very perceptive Doctor. I am clone 1423 I am a more advanced clone with some powers that rival The Gray Man.”
  The Doctor looked at him;
    “You can’t have that much power. The Gray Man would never let one of his creations rival him!” He continued. “Enough introductions. Where is Clara what have you done with her?”
  The clone looked at the Doctor;
    “I have not got your little pet but I can get her for you if you get the code for the secure cargo bay for me.”
  The Doctor went to speak but was stopped by the clone;
    “I know you don’t have it yet but think on it...” Clone 1423 walked over to a turbo lift, pried the doors open and jumped into the shaft letting the door slam shut behind him. The Doctor looked down at him;
    “Think you’re so clever but I know where to find you!” He had his sonic screwdriver in his hand... 

  The Pirate Empress Tasha the Merciless looked out from her throne room. Her throne was built from fragments from the hulls of 100 ships she had captured. Below the throne room balcony was the bridge of her flag ship the Athena. 
  It was a giant mining ship that she had captured and converted. Its mining tools when properly directed could crack a ship’s hull open as easily as an asteroid. The Amazon Pirate Alliance was her creation, recruited from the worst scum of three matriarchal human colonies. She had formed one of the largest pirate fleets on record, in this sector of the galaxy anyway. 
  She was preparing for the big one. If this succeeded she would be powerful enough to take her own planets and declare independence from the Earth Union. She had taken a gamble. She had called in every favour to assemble the fleet, every assassin, smuggler, slaver, privateer and buccaneer she knew was here or due to be in the next hour. Even with every pirate she needed assistance, she had to take on some unsavoury allies.    

  Clara woke up. Her head was singing again and she was inside a prison cell. She looked across, out of the bars Elvis Presley and bunch of girls in tight orange cat suits designed to look like prison uniforms were dancing and belting out a rendition of jail house rock. Clara shook her head, she was sure she was still quite heavily drugged and in la la land!
  Clara looked at herself. She wore an orange latex prison outfit. The bottom was a pair of hot pants and the top was scooped down at the front almost revealing everything.  
  She had a pair of three-inch heeled, knee high front lacing boots. GUILTY and a prisoner number 69 were printed across her chest and back. She had a pair of ankle shackles over her boots and there was a thick, strong belt tightly around her waist. Clara sighed she was hugging herself again and the arms wouldn’t budge. There was a woman outside the cell, wearing a police officer’s uniform of sorts. There were a pair of four inch heeled, knee-high spiky boots and black, super-tight hot pants.
  She wore a large leather belt and hanging from it were several cuffs gags and floggers. Her tight black top had a badge over one breast and the woman wore a police cap, mirrored glasses and luscious red lipstick. Clara noticed the woman had a flogger in one hand and a key in the other.
  The cell door clanged open and Clara was pushed down onto the prison bed, the police officer was kissing her! Clara was struggling but not very hard. There was a click and her left ankle was cuffed to the cot. The officer kissed Clara on the lips, there was a click and Clara’s right ankle was cuffed to the prison cot bed. There was suddenly a blindfold over Clara’s eyes;
    “I appeal against this...” Clara muttered.
  Reality slowly established itself. Unfortunately Clara was still in a cell and still heavily restrained. She was inside a cell, a steel box maybe eight feet by four feet by seven feet high. There was a bed with blue sheets. There was a one piece jumpsuit blue in colour. It appeared to have been strapped closed at the back. The whole thing was tight and heavy. There was a matching hood with an oval cut out over the face showing just the eyes and the nose. Clara felt her arms in the usual position, she thought dose everyone in the future use these bloody straitjackets! Clara tried to get up she couldn’t, she was held to the bed at shoulder and ankle. 
  The hood over her head held a large ball, about 2 ½ inches of sound absorbing rubber crammed into her jaw. The prison jumpsuit had two loops at the front her arms were fed through them both. She wore a pair of blue plimsolls and there were tight cuffs over her upper arms and ankles. 
  Clara heard a clicking sound. The ship’s security officer that had jabbed her with the needle was followed by another woman. Clara could see them open the door to her cell and a second later a pair of ankle shackles were on her feet. The cuffs holding her to the bed were released and Clara was allowed to sit, then stand up. Clara saw the woman waiting outside the cell for her.
  The Earth Force security officer Agent Pain was there in a tasteful blue suit. The ship’s security officer came over to her;
    “Prisoner ready for transfer ma’am.” Agent Pain shook her head;
    “That restraint is a joke, apply it properly!” The ship’s security officer jumped and suddenly Clara was spun around. The security officer fell on the back of the jacket. Suddenly Clara found her jumpsuit a heck of a lot tighter. Soon the hood and her arms received the same treatment. Agent Pain turned to the ship security officer;
    “I will take her now”.
  Clara was indignant as Agent Pain looped a dog collar around her neck, secured it and then proceeded to pull her along like a pet;
    “Clara you have been a naughty little girl and now I have to extract you from the pound. Agent Pain gave the leash another tug and Clara had to speed up the pace. “Still Clara, I heard you got to try one of those long term restraint jackets, you don’t have to feed or water a prisoner for months. I might stuff you in on of those and put you in my cage to keep you out of trouble...” Clara tugged on the leash-she didn’t want to go back there. Agent Pain laughed and smacked her on the bottom;
    “Keep up girl!”

  The Doctor knew that there were only a few places that The Gray Man’s followers could hide, and one of them was a bit too close to the reactor. A human would have needed a radiation suit but the Doctor didn’t. 
  Apparently, The Gray Man’s creatures were not particularly bothered by the radiation. He saw a couple of the living jamming devices that he had seen on the last base The Gray Man did like to hide. There were dozens of the squid larva lamp crystal hybrids. The Doctor ducked into a side corridor and two of The Gray Man’s low level clones walked past him. They had the same plasma cutters as the last time he met them but they had been modified with some sort of organic creature grafted into the weapon-it looked like it had a worm wrapped around the gun.
  That was when the hound noticed the Doctor. The Timelord had met the horrible creatures before, they too had been improved. The Doctor had the presence of mind to duck as the acidic goo sailed over his head and hit the door above. The hound chased after him and suddenly there were the two clones that he had seen earlier. He ducked as he found out the enhancement to the plasma cutter. This time rather than one burst of energy there were three. 
  Stepping into a control room the Doctor activated the closing mechanism at just the right moment and the door came down on the hound, cutting it in two. He looked at the room. There was a very large creature that was literally growing out of the floor. The Doctor looked at it carefully. It was grafted into a terminal and took a feed from the ship’s engine;
    “Very clever-they wanted a machine so they grew you rather than smuggling one aboard!”
  The two clones entered the room and the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver on the first clone;
    “I warn you, don’t fire.” The clone ignored him and raised its weapon. The gun overloaded killing both clones. The Doctor walked back to the console “I did say don’t shoot...” He poked and prodded the organism a few times. He clicked his fingers “It’s a biological long range Transmat! They could literally transport the cargo off the ship in seconds if they had the codes to de-activate all the security measures!” 
  The Doctor thought the device was tied directly into the main power. How was he going to get rid of it without causing a big explosion? Just then another of the hounds entered the room. It growled and the Doctor dived out of the way as an acidic blast hit the transmat. The device started pulsing and shaking. The Doctor shrugged;
    “Well that didn’t pass the acid test!” He hit an emergency shut-off for the power supply with his sonic screwdriver, then dived out of the room. The transmat and the hound exploded. Clone 1423 pinched the bridge of his nose;
    “Move the Doctor to the ‘kill on sight’-list!”

  Clara was panting when agent Pain finally stopped walking. They were by a turbo lift terminal. Agent Pain patted Clara on the head then directed Clara to sit down on a bench. The agent fumbled with the back of the hood then Clara was free of the damn thing and the lovely big ball attached to the inside of it. Agent Pain took a bottle of water out of her coat pocket and offered it to Clara;
    “Drink this.”
  Clara gave agent Pain a glower and then started drinking. Clara looked at her accusingly;
    “Why did you keep me gagged and why am I still wearing the restraints?” Clara tugged on her tight dress to emphasise the point. Agent Pain stroked her hair;
    “Firstly. You look so cute gagged and secondly I am still thinking about taking you out of circulation for your own protection.”
  Clara wanted to argue against that point but it didn’t help she had been captured quite easily. Agent Pain smiled;
    “Someone knew that the Krillitane were watching security. They must be someone on our side because they used non lethal restraints. I don’t think anyone else would use that against the competition. You were the bait and the trap. We still can’t identify those nanites.”
  Clara saw agent Pain turn, Clara looked in the same direction to see three creatures. Clara was not sure, they looked like men but they had gray skin and they were identical. The men with gray skin moved towards them. They carried enhanced plasma cutters and had some sort of dog like creature with them following. Agent Pain patted Clara on the shoulder and directed her to the turbo lift;
    “Run!” She emphasised. 
  Agent Pain pulled a small pistol and fired twice. Two of the clones dropped dead, one missing his head the second had a hole in his chest. Clara jumped into the turbo lift. She saw the doors close behind her. Agent Pain turned to run but one of the clones threw a black ball the size of a baseball at the agent.
  The ball exploded into a sheet of liquid latex. The latex hit agent Pain on the back. It was a living organism, enveloping her torso and forcing her to drop the gun. The agent started to wiggle and struggle and scream against the advancing latex. Soon it had pulled her legs together and formed a seamless skin tight ankle length hobble skirt. 
  Clara watched as agent Pain’s desperate face disappeared under the spreading latex so that only her nose was left showing, her mouth was stuffed, her eyes covered. A ridiculously tight latex sheath had formed over the agent’s torso and arms forcing them into a bone breaking, tight self-hug. 
  The woman moved about in clear distress. The hound and the clone grabbed her. The clone produced another liquid latex grenade and advanced towards the turbo lift Clara left Miss Pain and hammered the button on the turbo lift with her shoulder. 
  She was off to some random place, not sure where but away from the grey skinned clones!

  Commodore Bell was aboard the frigate Hannibal, sitting in the middle of his command deck. He had hardly slept or eaten, glued to his post. He was in charge of the taskforce guarding The Morning Star he would not leave his post. He gasped as the approaching alien ship dropped out of hyperspace, recognising it immediately;
    “It’s them.”
  He immediately ordered the Charger to come around to the ship’s left and Sabre to launch her four squadrons of Javelin mark II fighters. He put the Hannibal between the alien ship and The Morning Star. 
  Perhaps he could get The Morning Star enough time to run. The signal came over the communicator;
    “SURRENDER THE CARGO TO THE DALEKS OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED! YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS.” 

  The Daleks didn’t want to destroy the cargo they had come for, so they were being cautious. The Dalek super dreadnaught was a saucer three thousand and eight hundred meters long between forty to fifty thousand Dalek’s called it home. 
  Its firepower was far beyond what the three human ships and The Morning Star combined could do. The commodore tried to think of a way he could get his mission to succeed. Maybe he could get the Daleks to chase him? If he could think of a way to attract their attention.
  Then the entire map changed. Two giant, armour-plated dreadnaughts three kilometres long dropped out of faster than light travel right behind the Dalek ship. The Dalek ship’s smaller batteries started firing hitting green shields. The new ships were two giant cylinders with thirty boxy weapons clusters along the sides. The new ships targeted the Dalek ship.
  Rail guns and plasma weapons met the Daleks’ heavy shielding. The Dalek’s shields were not affected. The two dreadnaughts started opening up with heavier weapons. Energy disrupters started hitting the Dalek’s shields, pulsed fusion rockets launched in burning arches. 
  The level of the Dalek’s shields started to drop. They were beginning to affect the porcelain white dreadnaught’s green shields. They flickered slightly. 
  A stream of missiles from the two dreadnaughts started to buckle sections of the Dalek ships shielding.
  The Dalek supreme looked across his command room;
    “UNANTICIPATED LEVELS OF RESISTANCE! EMERGENCY RELOCATE. RELOCATE!”
  The Dalek ship’s engines powered up to allow it to escape. Green beams were projected from the two boxy dreadnaughts, they locked onto the Dalek ship. 
  It tried to move but was held in place. One of the Dalek ship’s engines exploded and the shields started to collapse. The amount of firepower from the Dalek ship was dropping. The two dreadnaughts’ shields recovered completely. The Dalek ship’s shields failed and its hull started to receive damage. 
  The primary power grid failed and the hull started to come away in heavy sections. The Dalek Supreme looked at his control room;
    “THE SHIP IS LOST! EVACUATE, EVACUATE!” The two dreadnaughts pumped even more energy blasts into the Dalek ship. The Dalek Supreme detected the transport, there was a blue light and a silver globe appeared in the control room “INVESTIGATE, INVESTIGATE!”
  The control room exploded and the Dalek ship started to come to pieces. One of the dreadnaughts put itself between the human ships and the exploding vessel. It extended its shielding to protect them.

  Commodore Bell scratched his head. He would have needed a level twelve task force to take on a Dalek ship that size! God alone knew what it would take to even scratch the two warships in front of him. His comm. Beeped, it was the Captain of the Charger. He wanted to know did they open fire or join formation.
  The only thing Commodore Bell could do was to instruct his men to hold position.  He spoke to his comms officer;
    “Hail them. Ask them to identify themselves and their intentions.”
  The two dreadnaughts scanned the debris field for any Dalek sized chunks of debris. They scanned the area for escape pods. There was a brief burst of fire then they scanned the area for escape pods again. The two dreadnaughts scanned The Morning Star. There were no live Dalek signs then they scanned the human warships just in case. 
  They scanned the rest of the system for any other Dalek support vessels then they jumped to hyperspace. Commodore Bell was stuck to his seat with sweat, he gasped;     
    “I guess they don’t want to talk. Actions speak louder than words. We were lucky today, we had just encountered an unknown species that don’t like the Daleks very much, let’s hope that’s all they wanted.” 
  His taskforce recovered their position and The Morning Star continued.

  The Doctor staggered out of the decontamination chamber. He was partially singed from the exploding transmit and it would still be a few minutes before his ears stopped ringing!
  A half dozen engineering technicians looked at him. He had just staggered out of a restricted area that normally contained a radiation lethal to humans. It was lucky he wasn’t human... 
  Four radiation scanners were pointed at him by several nervous techs. They recorded nothing and slowly the maintenance men walked towards him. When they were certain he wasn’t contaminated or injured himself one of them directed him to the Engineering Manager;
    “You must be the Doctor, can you see the manager?”
  The Engineering Manager was a little short round fellow with a twitching moustache;
    “The Captain wants to see you in her briefing room.”
  A few minutes later the Doctor called the turbo lift to the Captain’s briefing room.
The room was less a briefing room than a showcase. The Captain had collected weird and wonderful items from every corner of the galaxy and the Doctor looked over the collection with interest. Some of it was very old, some of it was quite common. There were gems there were antiques from civilisations long dead. 
  There was a thermo nuclear mine that looked like a large mirrored plate which the Doctor busily deactivated with his sonic screwdriver. It was marked in the case as unknown alien artefact. The Doctor waited a second as the Captain, an attractive woman in her early forties stormed into the room. She wore a black flight suit with gold epaulettes denoting her rank.
  She turned accusingly on him;
    “Are you playing with my collection again?”
  The Doctor shook his head and deactivated his sonic screwdriver putting it back in his pocket;
    “Me? No, I would never think-” The Captain waved her hand cutting him off; 
    “You know how much trouble you caused me? Its taken forty five minutes to convince Commodore Bell not to throw you in jail for letting the Sycorax go!”
  The Doctor turned to Balar Cree;
    “They were beaten, they were running and there was no need to try and shoot them.”   
  The Captain shook her head;
    “Let’s not debate this sober. Anyway, the Sycorax are not the only problem. We just got away from a bloody Dalek dreadnaught! Or more accurately, something larger blew them up, what it was I do not know.”
  The Doctor looked a little surprised;
    “Dalek’s here? Well I also deactivated a transmat. Someone called The Gray Man was trying to beam the cargo off.”
  The Captain shook her head;
    “I raise you. I have a brig full of Krillitane, some dead Sontaran commandos and I think some of the Amazon Pirate Alliance are still rattling around my ship!”
  The Doctor shook his head;
    “Your cargo isn’t exactly a secret.”
  The Captain shrugged;
    “Moving something that large all in one go-people talk. One person talks to another and suddenly I have a ship full of problems!” Balar Cree smiled at the Doctor, “Sometimes, days like this I wish I never accepted command.”
  The Doctor smiled;
    “I can tell you’re lying, it’s the same tell you have when you try to bluff at cards!”
  Balar smiled and laughed;
    “Okay, its days like this I live for.” The alarm on the intercom sounded;
    “Captain, it’s an emergency! We have found something attached to the main driveplate, we think it’s a bomb!”
  The Doctor and the Captain were over at the intercom in a second;
    “I’m on my way!” They both said in unison. Four security guards followed the Captain and the Doctor as they boarded the turbo lift and moved to the aft section of the ship. A minute later they were out of the lift and into the largest engine compartment. There was a large crystalline device attached to the most unstable part of the engine.
  The Doctor looked at it;
    “Very clever! This baby has been dormant for three months. Someone got it into your ship in five pieces that combined to form this!” He looked over it with the sonic screwdriver. “This is a very sophisticated device, if I try to disconnect it, it will explode, if I try to turn the drive plate off it explodes, if I try to get a better look at it, it explodes!” Then he looked at some scorch marks on the deck. “Whoever set this device was disintegrated. There’s no way to tell who set it and no one to turn it off. Brutal but clever!” The Doctor thought, “I can’t transport it off, that would cause it to explode. What can I do?” Then he clicked his fingers. “The bomb absorbed the material to detonate from the engine! If I can get it right, I can reverse it!” 
  The bomb bleeped and the Doctor‘s eyes went wild;
   “Well, that’s not good! Thirty seconds until it detonates and the blast would even take out any escape pod launched!” He set-to on the device. “Well, its power is draining back into the engines it just needs a few seconds, give or take. Hopefully it will be emptied by the time it detonates.” 
  Every one in the room jumped! The device didn’t explode so much as pop, drained of power! There was a buzz and a section popped apart, smoking a little. 
  The Doctor looked at it;
    “Okay, lets take you apart and see where you come from...” The device promptly shimmered and ceased to exist. “Clever! It needed the power to maintain its molecular cohesion. If you manage to disarm it, the device ceases to exist so you cant examine it. Very sneaky!”
  The Captain looked at the Doctor;
    “I owe you one.” 
  The Doctor nodded, proud of himself. A report flashed up on the Captain’s data pad;
    “Doctor, we’ve found your friend! Earth Security have her. They’ll meet us in a discreet spot.” The Captain looked at her security escort. “Go.” They found something else to guard and she looked at the Doctor;
    “Bar.”
  The bar was a short hop in a turbo lift and one floor down. It didn’t officially exist, it was just crammed into a corner of the ship. The bartender knew the Captain and instantly poured her a drink-a glass of a blue jello-like substance. The Captain nodded a second time and a second shot arrived for the Doctor. 
  A couple of people were playing cards on one of the cramped tables but a look from the Captain and the card-game relocated. The Doctor and the Captain looked at each other, raised their glasses and clinked them together. They slugged there jello down, blinked, wobbled and then slowly fell off there seats in unison.
  From one corner of the bar, two Amazon space pirates stood up. The Doctor tried to get up but fell down again. Balar Cree tried to resist the pirates but she had been drugged. The bartender was one of them! The two others approached her. 
  One forced a pear gag into her mouth then strapped the beast in place behind her head. 
  A pair of black mittens were produced and soon they were tightly locked over the Captain’s hands. A strap was fed from one mitten to the next around the Captain’s body and she felt herself in a tight hug with a sort of invisible straitjacket. 
  They picked her up and carried her limp body away. About a minute later the Doctor managed to stagger to the bar. He grabbed a strange looking paste and a tumbler, throwing all sorts of ingredients into it, barely able to stand. 
  The Doctor, shaking, removed his sonic screwdriver and directed it at the tumbler. The tumbler vibrated, he held his nose and downed most of the disgusting cocktail. He screamed and fell over. Ten seconds later he stood up, the drug neutralised from his system. 

Clara struggled out of the turbo lift. She had a difficult time with the straitjacket and the shackles. Clara looked around. There had to be something around here. Clara found a terminal, she was in luck! A few taps with her nose and she had accessed the terminal her retina scan showed she was a member of the crew. 
  She was able to access a plan the Doctor had shown her. It showed the nearest maintenance workshop and with any luck she would be able to find something to get herself free. 
  Clara was lucky. The maintenance room was open and there was a utility knife lying on the work bench. Clara managed to get a grip on it with her right hand, just a few stretches and she could work the blade against the sleeve of the jacket. 
  A few more minutes and she had the elbow of the left arm mostly cut through. Clara worked carefully finally she had her left arm out of the restraint. From there it was simple to cut the right sleeve free. Then Clara found a grinder and managed to remove the shackles from around her ankles. Clara managed to escape from the remains of the prison jumpsuit and into a baggy maintenance overall. 
  She started back to the terminal-she had to find the Doctor! Then a message appeared in front of her, ‘Please help me. I am wounded, it is dark.’

  The Doctor ran through the ship. They had dropped their guard and were riding high after dealing with the last threat. Now he corrected himself, it was his mistake! They had taken her from right under his nose. The Amazon Space Pirate Alliance must have had people onboard the ship for some time, perhaps checking The Morning Star out, looking to see if she was a good target or maybe smuggling illegal cargo along with the huge quantities of legal cargo. 
  The Doctor had to find the Captain and his friend. The pirates, well, when they found them he would find a way to beat them that didn’t spill any blood but there would be a price for this...
  He had found and old security system that had been overlooked and the hidden camera came to life, recording everything. The Doctor smiled. 
  The Gray Man’s clone 1423 along with three low grade clones waited. Three Amazon Space Pirates entered the room with the Captain in tow. Clone 1423 looked at the pirate agent. She smiled;
    “We have one half of the back up plan-the Captain of the ship.”
  1423 shook his head;
    “The back up plan is destroyed. The Doctor destroyed my transmit.”
  The pirate shrugged;
    “We still have the primary plan in place. Our armada combined with yours can easily take on the small Earth Task Force and this ship’s pitiful shields.”
  1423 started to get angry;
    “There are other players. The Daleks arrived but they were destroyed by the agents of my enemy. Even with our combined ships it could be a problem.”
  The pirate agent was not happy;
    “You are too cautious.”
  The clone responded;
    “And you are overconfident! The codes to the ship and the cargo bay would make this easier.”
  The pirate held out a hand;
    “She is our bargaining chip, not yours! Worth more as a hostage than a mind ripped corpse!” 
  The Clone, 1423 smiled;
    “I guess we have reached an impasse. That means I can stop pretending that we are allies.”
    “What do y-” The leading Space Pirate was taken by surprise as the three low grade clones threw black grenades at the space pirates, within seconds the Amazon space pirates were heavily restrained within tight shrinking cocoons of living liquid latex, that shrank and tightened until they were practically immobile!
  Clone 1423 strode over and grabbed the Captain;
    “Thank you for the gift of the Captain! When I am somewhere secure I will mind-rip her.” Clone 1423 looked at the pirates. “The Gray Man never intended to hold to his bargain. After the battle when your pirate alliance is no longer useful we will deal with your sisters in a similar way. The Captain will be mind-ripped for useful information and we can still collect the bounty on their corpses! The rest of you can go to the slave markets and anyone we can’t sell, well, The Gray man always needs healthy bodies for his experimentation...”
  The pirates struggled harder on hearing this news but the clones grabbed them and the Captain and headed off.

  The Doctor pocketed the recording disk;
    “So they are going to attack soon. I am sure your allies will be glad to see this recording, Gray Man.” The doctor mused. The Gray Man couldn’t be trusted, the pirates neither but it was a matter of who moved faster and The Gray Man had been doing this for longer! The Doctor had called the ship’s Security and warned them about an attack. He told them the direction that the clone 1423 was headed. He had to get security and get to the location the clones were heading for before his friend was killed as they extracted information from her mind!

  Agent pain was a little tied up. She was sat in a room inside her cocoon. They had allowed her to see what was going on detaching a section over her eyes. Two bored looking clones and a hound were stationed to guard her. A few creatures that looked like sensor jammers were attached to the roof of the room. The door opened the ship’s Captain, drugged and tied up was pushed into the room, so were three of what could only be members of the Amazon Pirate Alliance. 
  There were four clones including one that was somehow more solid, aware of himself. The Captain was pushed into the seat next to agent Pain and the clone 1423 looked at the Captain with a grin, his index finger started to elongate into a spike...

  Clara found herself in a maze of winding maintenance corridors;
    “Hello, can you hear me? I am coming!” Clara took a deep breath and walked into the room the distress signal had come from. The lights sprang on there was a Dalek there;
    “YOU WILL REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE , YOU WILL BE USED AS A HOSTAGE TO SECURE THE CARGO!”
  Clara had been suckered by the giant pepper pot. The Dalek was badly injured, its right hand sensor cluster was missing and a good section of its dome was warped. The eye stalk was bowed and plates were missing from its neck and shoulder sections. Its gun was bent and shaking, like it was having some trouble keeping track of a target.   
  The manipulator arm was equally difficult to control. Half of its right hand side plating was warped or missing;
    “The Doctor will deal with you!”
  The Dalek advanced on Clara, its manipulator arm moved towards her face;   
    “SILENCE!” A shower of silver dust hit Clara in the face and she staggered and fell to the floor.

  The Doctor burst through the door. There were five clones, a hound and the high grade clone. Four women were wrapped in black sheaths and the Captain. Just as the clone 1423 was about to mind-rip her, the cocoon next to him exploded!
  Agent Pain’s arm ripped through it and slugged the clone, knocking him to the floor. Before the Doctor could move, agent Pain ripped the restraint from her body like it was wet paper. She stood up and hit a button on her jacket. A holo projector deactivated. Agent pain was shown to have blue grey skin and purple eyes. Her dress exploded at the side as a second set of hidden arms unfolded from behind her back.   
  The android seemed to stretch her arms, extended her legs and her whole body got larger until she stood six foot six.

  The android in her full form looked at the clone;
    “I AM NURSE PAYNE. HELLO AND GOOD BYE.”
  Before clone 1423 could react the android was sailing through the air, every finger every thumb on both of her hands produced a needle two inches long, the android landed on clone 1423 injecting him in the torso with twenty needles. 
  The clone finally reacted. His left hand elongated into a spike and punched the android in the stomach. His right arm backhanded the android sending her across the room. The clone got up. He seemed to have been injected with something that was slowly killing him. 
  The Doctor used his sonic screw driver on the enhanced plasma cutters. The power packs started smoking then fell out. Suddenly, the five clones were disarmed.
  The android got up and the hole in her stomach starting to close. Clone 1423 staggered, his body was starting to turn green-he looked unwell. A clone ran at the Doctor, he ducked and at the same time a hound spat a gob of acid at him. The acid hit the clone which screamed in pain and dropped to the floor smoking. A second clone tried to hit the Doctor with one of his restraint grenades but the Doctor leaned to one side and the grenade sailed past him and struck the hound. 
  Clone 1423 turned to the Captain;
    “It will be easier if there is no Captain!” Clone 1423’s right hand formed into a spiky club but the Doctor tackled him before he could kill the Captain. The android brought her fists down on two of the other clones and they dropped to the floor like puppets with their strings cut! The last low grade clone approached the Captain with a knife. 
  Her eyes regained focussed, she booted the clone in the neck, there was a cracking sound-he dropped. The Doctor felt clone 1423’s hands around his neck and could feel his vision blurring.
  The android pulled 1423 off of the Doctor and the high grade clone shuddered and died. The Doctor set about freeing the Captain;
    “This is another one you owe me!”
  The nurse turned to the Doctor;
    “THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE, THE LAST FEW PLAYERS AT THE TABLE WILL PLAY THERE LAST CARDS SOON. YOUR COMPANION IS IN TROUBLE A DALEK TRANSPORTED ABOARD FROM THE SUPER DREADNAUGHT. IT WAS NEAR DEATH AND WE COULD NOT DETECT IT UNTIL ITS LIFE READINGS RECOVERED. WE MUST ACT FAST.” 
  The Doctor looked at the Space Pirates;
    “What about them?” 
  The android reached up and crushed the jamming creature on the ceiling. The Pirates shimmered blue and were transported away. Nurse Payne looked at the Doctor;
    “WE WILL REHABILITATE THEM OR KEEP THEM LOCKED UP AWAY FROM CIVILISED SOCIETY.”
  The ship’s Security finally arrived. The Captain looked at them at the same time as the Doctor and she spoke;
    “Follow me.”

  Clara’s vision was going foggy. She saw a woman in front of her wearing a pair of calf high, black, flat boots. She had a knee-length gold dress with the edge trimmed in a bronze colour. All along the length of the dress were sections of four bronze domes somehow attached to it. The woman wore a bronze coloured top and below her breasts was a bust-less corset in gold with bronze vertical stripes. She had a little head band which seemed to have a two lights one either side like little horns. She carried what looked like a plunger. Before Clara could react the woman planted the plunger firmly over her mouth and it stuck there, transforming into a thick, rubber muzzle gag.
  Clara woke up and there was a strange pressure at the back of her head. She looked at herself, she was slumped against a wall. 
  A thick choking black mass was sealed inside her lips and over her mouth. It continued over her chest and over her arms it seemed to be digesting the jump suit she was wearing and advancing over her body! The Dalek stood there its twitching gun trained on her. 
  The Doctor entered the room, sonic screwdriver in hand;
    “Let her go and I can arrange a shuttle for you back to Dalek space!”
  The Dalek twitched;
    “THE DOCTOR! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!” 
  The Doctor’s hand twitched and a signal overrode the Dalek’s firing control and it shot it the other direction. A half dozen of the ship’s Security came through the door. Their weapons fired, the damaged Dalek shuddered and died.
  The Doctor looked at Clara with a worried, serious look on his face;
    "This is similar to a Nanocloud technology. The Dalek was trying to convert her into an agent, the restraint is meant to hold her in place while the conversion takes place. It’s slow, hours. Something seems to be slowing the process down. I don’t know how to stop it or reverse it, but I will. Clara looked frightened. She tried to fight against her growing restraint but it seemed futile. 

Two Earth Fleet armoured cruisers The Defiance at three hundred and twenty meters and the Repulse at three hundred and forty, dropped out of hyperspace and joined formation as part of the Hannibal’s task force. Commodore Bell was glad of the extra fire power. He thought he was lucky to get the reinforcements. However at its last docking a small beacon was attached to the Defiance and that small beacon now activated.
  The Amazon Pirate Alliance dropped out of hyperspace. There were three irregular capital ships that looked like adapted mining ships. The largest was a thousand meters long followed by two at eight hundred. There were eighteen converted cargo ships ranging from 300 to 500 meters long and an additional 50 completely irregular ships ranging from 150 to 70 meters long in support. They were either civilian ships that had been modified, scrapped military vessels that had been salvaged or stolen police vessels. There was a literal swarm of fighters, two wings of irregular fighter craft in two groups of a hundred and forty-four ships each, accompanied them. All the ships awaited the pirate empress command.

  Hope appeared in the Commodore’s eyes, he checked his scanner and a smile spread across his lips. The pirate fleet-amateurs had missed one large spot! He could still run before they could close it, he could still complete his mission!
  Then the other fleet arrived. There was a well of black energy and a large creature, a bio ship 2500 meters long. Its body was formed like a manta ray, its tail ended in fifty or sixty tendrils trailing behind it. They acted as propulsion and a powerful red shield covered its body. Four smaller capital ships followed it in a V formation, formed with a black squid like body with a set of twenty of thirty tendrils trailing from them as propulsion. A red shield surrounded them and they were each around a kilometre long. 
  There were smaller ships, twenty five and each eighty meters long. They looked strange, black and shaped like an apple seed but with four spikes ten meters long in and x shape. There were in excess of four hundred bat-like creatures twelve feet across and they moved in-between the capital ships-a swarm moved by some unknown sort of propulsion.

  The Captain had left for the bridge when the alarm went off. The Doctor had been working on Clara to no avail. She was now completely engulfed in the restraint but he had not given up. 
  Out of the corner of his eye he watched the ships arrive on a monitor. The Doctor got up. He hit a few buttons on the control. The Pirate Empress’s face appeared on the screen;
    “How did you get this frequency?”
    “Watch this!” The Doctor played the recording of clone 1423 and the Empress looked angry;
    “All capital ships target that leviathan! All frigates and brigs split into attack groups. Group one and two attack the bio warships closest to The Morning Star. Attack groups three and four target the two furthest, all fighters protect our ships!”   
  The Doctor turned and started working on Clara again. 

The Amazon pirate alliance ripped into The Gray Man’s ships. The Pirate Empress watched with great delight as a dozen atomic weapons detonated against the shields of the great creature, its shield dropped substantially;
    “Get the modified seismic survey probes launched, reduce power to the grave plating by forty percent and put it into the main weapons! Reduce life support by twenty percent and throw it into the shields!”
  The largest creature’s main weapon fired and the Pirate Empress felt her ship shake. The ship was designed to be able to survive travel through an asteroid field but even with her industrial shields the shield power dropped thirty five percent. 
  The pirates had gotten the drop on The Gray Man’s forces but they had not been able to do real damage to the five main ships. Now the Pirate Empress was in a battle she could probably not win.
  Commodore Bell thought about running, he looked at his tactical screen. The pirates’ fighters were not organised and their capital ships had thrown most of their heavy weapons at the bio ships in the first couple of salvos, damaging but not crippling them. 
  With regret he spoke over the communicator;
    “All ships hear me. We are fighting with the pirates for now. Morning Star, concentrate your weapons on the un-shielded fighters! You don’t have the fire power to do anything else. They have a decided fighter superiority we must neutralise! Defiance and Repulse target the main enemy capital ship. That monster has to die as soon as possible-do not get close. The Hannibal will target the nearest bio battle ship. We block them from getting to The Morning Star. Charger, come around and flank the ship we are attacking and give it every torpedo in your magazine! Sabre, launch your four squadrons of Javelins. Have them attack the medium sized bio ships. Attack at Squadron Commander’s discretion and get the Sabre’s guns focused on our target!”   
  The Earth ships threw themselves at the bio ships, chipping away at The Gray Man’s forces. The Pirate Empress thought maybe she could still salvage today. 

  Clara could feel her mind beginning to burn with hate. The Doctor was the enemy, the Doctor must die! She screamed and struggle- the Dalek programming was starting to take over. 
  The Doctor started one final time, a desperate now or never. The Doctor overloaded the Dalek device. There was a splintering sound and a scream from Clara. 
  The device disintegrated and the Doctor pulled off his jacket laying it over her. She coughed and looked at him;
    “Doctor what happened?”
  The Doctor grinned;
    “You’re alright. I managed to deactivate the Dalek device. A few nanites from the earlier jacket were left over and they fought against it.”
  Clara breathed a sigh of relief;
    “How did you find me?”
  The Doctor gestured;
    “Oh the android, Nurse Pain sent me.”
  Clara looked surprised;
    “That woman was an android, are you sure?”
    “Oh yes!” He held Clara.

  Between The Morning Star’s point defence batteries, the Sabres, fighters and the pirate’s irregular fighter wings, the swarm of bat like bio fighters was halfway obliterated. 
  Many of The Gray Man’s medium ships were destroyed or damaged. The five capital bio ships were still very much intact. One bio ship was in trouble. The Earth task force had three ships on it and the pirate task force had an entire fifth of their fleet on the one ship yet its shields still held at the point of failing. 
  The main bio ship was still undamaged. The main pirate capital ships were almost finished in terms of shields and hull plating. Commodore Bell and the Pirate Empress realised that they might be able to kill a lot of The Gray Man’s fleet but essentially they were not going to win. 
  The battle changed. Out of hyperspace The Core’s two dreadnaughts dropped, one next to The Morning Star, one next to the bio capital ship. The dreadnaught next to the bio ship launched twenty large missiles. 
  The missiles were protected with a green shield and they streaked into the main battle. They each split into a dozen smaller missiles which targeted the bio fighters. In about five seconds from launch the bio fighters were all but exterminated. 
  Both dreadnaughts started to fire with their smaller and larger weapons. The one next to The Morning Star swept past her, dropping a field of meter-long mines. The mines formed a curtain between the main battle and The Morning Star. 
  The main bio ship targeted the closest dreadnaught but its green shields resisted its main battery of weapons. A continuous beam of green energy came from the dreadnaught closest to the morning star. 
  It hit the kilometre long bio ship with weak shields. The red shield collapsed then the monster exploded, gutted. The second dreadnaught targeted another kilometre long bio ship with a green energy beam its shields lasted longer but it ultimately suffered the same fate.
  The medium sized bio ships were all gone by now. One of the kilometre long bio ships ran a black blur surrounded it then it was gone. The second remaining kilometre long ship tried to run but was disintegrated, targeted by a green beam of energy. 
  The entire fleet now targeted the massive bio ship. The beast was stuck between the two dreadnaughts. Two green beams hit its shields in the same spot and after ten seconds they failed. The creature had a massively armoured hide but after another five seconds of the concentrated energy it ruptured and exploded. One of the dreadnaught’s shields started to pulse sending waves of unknown energy out.
  The Pirate Empress looked at the Earth Force ships and the two porcelain white dreadnaughts. The Earth ships she could easily defeat with her damaged forces but the two dreadnaughts were another matter, it was time to run. 
  She found her hyperdrive was not working-the energy from the dreadnaught’s shields was jamming everyone’s hyper drive. 

  Commodore Bell looked at the message that appeared on his tactical screen. 
    “THE PIRATES HAVE CAUSED YOU NOTHING BUT TROUBLE. BREAK FORMATION WITH THEM. GET YOUR SHIPS OUT OF THE WAY OR ASSIST WITH CONTAINMENT. IF THEY ESCAPE TODAY YOU WILL HAVE TO FIGHT THEM LATER. THEY WERE WITH THE GRAY MAN TO BEGIN WITH. I WANT THEM ALIVE, DISABLE SHIELDS ONLY IF YOU JOIN US.”
  The commodore considered the offer;
    “I can’t stop you and I don’t want to get in the way. We will help you round them up.” The commodore’s signal beeped, “All Earth ships target the Pirate Alliance. Disable there shields only! I repeat, disable shields only.” 

  The Pirate Empress saw the dreadnaught’s green beam target her capital ship, two seconds later and her shields failed. She expected the ship to explode but instead a small silver canister was transported into the control room with a little glow of blue light. The Empress saw the green gas she felt foggy, she collapsed in her throne room.   
  A pirate ship tried to fight. Its pulses of energy hit the dreadnaught’s green shields and harmlessly bounced off. Another pirate ship tried to run but a green tractor beam caught it. The Hannibal targeted a pirate ship and a few blasts of energy collapsed the pirate’s shields. A moment later the ship stopped and readings showed the crew were unconscious. 
  The Earth ships found their opponents who were quickly subdued in less than two minutes, there wasn’t a single active pirate vessel, androids transported onto the pirate ships. 

  The Pirate Empress woke to find herself bound with her wrists tied to ankles and elbows close together. A jaw-breaking gag was in her mouth and an android of some sort was standing over her. 
  There was a blue glow and she was transported to a padded room, to her mute indignation the transporters had bothered to transport her restraints but not her clothes. An android was in the cell and a hood was stretched over her, head blinding her. In ten minutes the Earth Forces could not detect a single life form or android on the Pirate ships. It seemed that every single member of the Amazon Pirate Alliance had been captured.  

  Commodore Bell felt nervous. The two dreadnaughts were still there. The Gray Man’s forces had been wiped off the map with extreme prejudice and the Amazon Pirate Alliance had been wiped out with every member captured, their ships defences brushed aside in minutes. Still, he could salvage their ships for a good reward. 
  The Commodore waited for the two dreadnaughts to jump to hyperspace but they did not, they were starting to close on The Morning Star...

  The Doctor appeared, broadcasting a signal to the white dreadnaughts on the view screen; 
    “Don’t do this, think about it!”
  A message appeared on the screens all the screens as a reply,
    IMAGINE DOCTOR THE GOOD I COULD DO WITH THOSE RESOURCES. I COULD DESTROY THE GRAY MAN. THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE BEING HURT. I COULD PUNISH THOSE RESPONSIBLE. 
  The Doctor replied;
    “You would become The Gray Man! I know what it is like to be tempted! ” 
  Every relay of every ship seemed to shake;
    I AM NOT LIKE THE GRAY MAN.

  Commodore Bell indicated to his ships and fighters;
    “Take up position between The Morning Star and those dreadnaughts!”
  The Doctor’s image appeared again;
    “You are not The Gray Man yet but if you do this, you start one step towards becoming him! You know Earth needs this shipment. Earth will need every ship to stop that Dalek invasion. Calculate the civilian casualties!”
  The signal went dead. The Commodore waited. The two dreadnaughts had slowed and stopped. Aboard the bridge of The Morning Star the Captain held her breath. Inside the ship Clara looked at the Doctor. He, in turn looked at the monitor. He breathed a sign of relief as The Core’s ships jumped away. Clara felt herself drifting off to sleep.

  Clara realised she was on her knees, bent over in a ball with canvas pads below her body. She tried to get up only to find she couldn’t rise. There was something leather over her head. In-between her lips was a massive plug. 
  Her neck seemed to be locked in a secure collar and there was a short bar from the collar to a pair of cuffs on her ankles. Clara tugged at her arms they were inside some sort of tight straitjacket wrapped around her torso. She could feel a central loop and side loops. There was also a tight crotch strap making itself at home. 
  Suddenly, there was a hand on her bottom;
    “MY DEAR CLARA IT IS I, NURSE PAYNE. YOU KNEW ME AS AGENT PAIN. THE DOCTOR SAID YOU NEEDED TO BE KEPT OUT OF TROUBLE FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK AND THE REST OF THE VOYAGE. THE BLUE LOTUS KENNEL BLOCK IS SO WELL EQUIPPED, I JUST COULDN’T RESIST AND NEITHER WILL YOU.”