(no subject)

[nitro_is_ace]

Ace is learning, the hard way, that not only are manual materializations a bitch and a half to run, doing multiples thereof in a short span of time is proving somewhat impossible.

It shouldn't be. She can prove it on paper.

It's bloody frustrating. She and Skrith have been over and over it, arguing, ripping the theory apart and putting it back together in a kaleidoscope of fashions and, on one memorable night, they got ridiculously drunk (Ace had the absinthe) over it.

Yes, that would be the night they managed to sneak past the MPs and paintballed Romana's TARDIS.

G'on. You know you think it's hilarious. Besides, what were you lot expecting when allowing two cats to hang out together for a prolonged period of time?

But beyond earning a reputation for being more than a little insane as a fighter and tactician, she's earning a reputation of being... a little unpredictable. Not that anyone's running on an even emotional keel these days, but more than one person has had their heads bitten off by a suddenly growly pyro.

Ace's TARDIS, and those of a dozen of her better pilots, shudder into existence in the ranks. Ace steps out first, and peers up at the top of her TARDIS, scowling, before disappearing back inside.

Guessing by the way the other pilots avoid Ace's TARDIS like the plague? It's a grumpy night. She comes back out eventually, with equipment to scale up to the top of the ship and find out what's still smoldering up there.

Comments

[just_the_doctor]

The Doctor is in what has been converted to the War Room, along with Romana and Harry (who by now is actually answering to that name), going over the latest casualty and equipment reports.

"There's no such thing as acceptable losses!" he says, louder perhaps than he'd intended. "Not this time! Even if we lose one Time Lord for every hundred Daleks, they will still be enough by the time they reach Gallifrey to crack the planet in half!"

[http://users.livejournal.com/_romana_/]

Romana gives the Doctor a regally quelling glare. It is truly unfortunate that she's never been able to quell him. Not for all four regenerations that she's known him.

"Do keep your volume down, Doctor." She reminds him, sternly. "We must keep up morale."

The quelling glare works much better on Harry, who doesn't much appreciate the Doctor still going by his non-Gallifreyan name.

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

Ace, elbow-deep in her TARDIS's innards, flinches at the shout, looks up, and scowls.

After digging in her pockets for a moment, she finds her psychic paper. She scribbles a quick note, confers with her TARDIS, and goes back to work.


Professor - We know. Shut it. ~A


Ace is much less polite than Romana on a good day.

[just_the_doctor]

He stares daggers at his once-Companion. The one with the headdress, that is. When he does continue, though, his voice is lower.

"Morale is hardly the biggest issue at the moment. We've lost a fifth of our forces since the fighting began, and have reduced the enemy fleet by a tenth of that. All the morale in the multiverse can't change the numbers."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_romana_/]

Harry chooses this moment to gain a point against the upstart, crossing his arms across his chest.
"I note that your human has not managed to make good on her... interesting claims." He notes with a note of smugness that doesn't disappear even with Romana glaring at him again.

"I have no complaints about the performance of Time Lords Ace and Skrith."

[just_the_doctor]

"That sentence, dear Harry, should end with the word 'yet'," the Doctor points out. "I've known Ace for some time, and I've never heard her make a claim she couldn't back up. I, meanwhile, note that you have failed to come up with an alternative strategem. Yet."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_romana_/]

"How like you, to protect these hu..."

"Gentlemen!" Romanadvoratrelundar snaps like a whip, slamming her hands down on the desk in front of her. "Do either of you have any helpful comments, or shall I call this meeting to a close?"

[just_the_doctor]

"Begin evacuating Gallifrey."

The words taste bitter to him even as he says them.

"We're too easy a target here. Spread out, we'll have more of a chance. The fleet and I will concentrate on slowing their advance. Give you more time."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"OUT OF THE"

Slam

Ace storms through, and makes the most perfunctory bow in the history of prefunctory bows to Romana.

"Madame President, this won't take but a moment." She assures a very bemused looking Romana before transferring her attention to the male contingent in the room.

"Between the pair of you, you're scarin' the hell out of the kids out there. Either clam up or whip'm out an' measure, I don't really care, but for the love of small fuzzy gods, stoppit before there's a bloody panic." She snarls in a low tone, looking positively murderous.

[just_the_doctor]

The Doctor holds Harry's stare until the other looks away. Then, he turns to Ace.

"They should be scared." His voice is low and deathly calm. "You of all people know the threat the Daleks represent. To them, the Daleks are just something they learned about, stories to frighten them as children. But you and I have faced them down before and know what's at stake."

He shifts his attention. "Romana. You know I'm right. You're their leader. They're looking to you to keep them safe. I'm asking you. Get our people out of here."

[nitro-is-ace.livejournal.com]

"Fantastic! You can go on sayin' that while half our forces are hidin' under the bloody beds." She rumbles. She then gives Romana another very short, very hurried bow, and storms out of the room.

She doesn't want to stay here. She'll hurt someone.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_romana_/]

Romana is quiet. She doesn't want to make this decision. When she became President, the largest problems facing Gallifrey had more to do with experimental mathematics, not the destruction of time and space.

Oh Gallifrey.

"Send a general alert." Her voice is composed, firm, and devastated. "Start the evacuation of Gallifrey. Arcadia has promised to shelter refugees - Doctor, find homes for the rest. We will not send our people out into darkness without a place to go to."

[just_the_doctor]

He'd half-hoped she was going to fight him on it. Give him some reason to think they could stop the army before they reached here.

He swallows back a lump and nods. "Veritas should help. It's a Federation world, but we won't hold it against them this once. I'll reach out to them. A couple of others, too. I'll take care of it."

[http://users.livejournal.com/_romana_/]

She would, she does not want to fight just for the sake of fighting. His point is valid - at their current losses, they cannot hope to stop the oncoming swarm of Daleks. Deny it for too long, and she risks the unconscionable - the extinction of the Gallifreyan species.

"I know, Doctor." For a moment, the quirky, friendly grin of her second self peers out of the habitually more serious face. "That is your gift."

Harry is outraged, but manages to hold his tongue. He is wise enough to take a hint.