Galileo's Burden, Phase Beta: In Avani's Name

[cityship]

(Plot Post!)

The sun was starting to sink towards the horizon as the emergency pod landed down on the surface of Orya, deep in the thicket of a jungle a few miles north of the village.

It was all unknown and uncharted territory... but if Stacy's crew ever wanted to see a good half of their doctors and scientists again, there was no other choice but to stage a rescue mission.


(ooc: SUBTHREADS ARE FIIIINE. Have at!)

Comments

[makeherblue]

The Doctor supposed if he had to die (again), going out "nice and pretty" was hardly the worst way to go.

Death by fire pit, though, was a bit of a problem. Not much of a chance to regenerate if he was incinerated. The Doctor didn't ask where the knife came from, his eyes flicking briefly over to Daniel as he bumped against him, seemingly by accident, and the Doctor found a small knife materializing in his hands. Not his thing, knives, far too pointy and dangerous for his preference, but these ropes weren't going to cut themselves by wishing very very hard (not that it wasn't impossible -- just highly unlikely in this case). Unlike Daniel or Billy, the Doctor didn't bow his head or stare stonily ahead, instead peering around at their guards and Mother Reda doing her chanting thing with open interest as if they weren't only a good bodily throw from almost certain death.

Even from here he could feel the heat of the fire against his cheek.

So this ritual. The Doctor had seen his fair share of rituals, so he supposed the chanting and the fire and the Chosen looking rather serious were a given at this point. This was one of those times having long spidery fingers helped: he was much more nimble with the knife than Daniel, flipping it around and sawing through his rope. It felt almost a shame to have to ruin the knot-work, especially after they'd gone through so much trouble to make it even better a second time around. The rope around his wrist slackened.

The Doctor passed the knife to the next person.

[notlewis]

It was frankly a miracle Luis was still conscious. The last few days had been spent lying in a corner of the cave with Scarlet tending to his wounds, trying to make sure the bullet wounds in his shoulder stayed as minor as possible. It hadn't gone excellently. There was still blood trickling through the dirty, improvised bandages and it had started to burn, indicating infection, but Luis supposed he was doing pretty good for lying on a cave floor for a few days.

If they sat around waiting for him to fumble through sawing his ropes with a hand that felt painful and numb at the same time (somehow), they'd all be sacrificed before he finished. He was slumped over on his side, too weak to sit up, but he managed to catch the knife the Doctor tossed over, after a bit of fumbling. Luis shifted slightly and immediately passed it on to the next hostage.

[couldputitback]

Faiza hadn't allowed herself to feel too awful about having her powers negated. After all, she'd been a doctor before she'd ever had her powers and she hadn't lost THAT.

On the other hand, she hadn't had to work in such dismal conditions before, either, no matter what jokes were made about the NHS. While Scarlet had tended Luis, Faiza had done her best with the rest of the captives, at least as much as she could. Which, unfortunately, meant that she was somewhat out of her element with a few members, but she'd done her best.

The knife came into her hand and Faiza bent her head, trying not to pull attention to herself as she worked at her ropes. It wasn't easy and she nicked herself twice, but the rope eventually parted and she was able to pass it on to the next captive. Closing her eyes, she began to mouth prayers. Anything to have something else to concentrate on until the time was right.

[zenithianhero.livejournal.com]

The last few days had been terrible grueling. Sofia had watched Luis's condition, still feeling hopeless at the fact she could not use her spells to aid him. Maybe there continued to grow inches of respect for his tenacity. When the knife was passed to her, she slowly cut her ropes, making sure they looked intact by holding them with her other hand as she sliced through them. The move was dangerous and the inevitable happened; a slice a little too close and one of her fingers was nicked. She did her best not to show it in her face, and hoped the damage wasn't too serious.

The knife was passed to the next captive.