"Thane's still not harmless. He's still after the Doctor, and he's said as much. What's more, he's declared himself willing to go through everyone and everything in his way. Everyone thinks the hostages are rescued, that at least Thane doesn't have any more of us, but they're wrong, you know. He's got Jack." She swallows and keeps walking. "He's in there, trapped and struggling. And if he comes back, knowing what he did, what do you think that'll do to him? It'll just get worse, the longer we wait. The longer we wait, one way or another, to kill him or to get him out, the more Jack's going to suffer." And she knows, better than most, how much guilt Jack carries even for the things he didn't do.
But that's not all of it. Not even close. "Given his stated intent... It's only a matter of time before he tries again, before he finds some other way to make the Doctor hurt, and there's a whole city out there. So I'm going to give him a distraction. He likes power, doesn't he? Likes to have control over people." That much, he can guess from the survivors, from Hart, from Tosh... "I'm going to give him that. Give him something full of cracks and weaknesses, something already broken and barely held together that he can play with. And I can play him right back. I can get to Jack, I can turn Thane's own subconscious mind against him..." She takes a deep breath. "And I can keep him busy for a while, I hope. But we've got no coherent strategy for dealing with him, and my Captain's the best strategist I know. Might as well try to reach him.
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"Thane's still not harmless. He's still after the Doctor, and he's said as much. What's more, he's declared himself willing to go through everyone and everything in his way. Everyone thinks the hostages are rescued, that at least Thane doesn't have any more of us, but they're wrong, you know. He's got Jack." She swallows and keeps walking. "He's in there, trapped and struggling. And if he comes back, knowing what he did, what do you think that'll do to him? It'll just get worse, the longer we wait. The longer we wait, one way or another, to kill him or to get him out, the more Jack's going to suffer." And she knows, better than most, how much guilt Jack carries even for the things he didn't do.
But that's not all of it. Not even close. "Given his stated intent... It's only a matter of time before he tries again, before he finds some other way to make the Doctor hurt, and there's a whole city out there. So I'm going to give him a distraction. He likes power, doesn't he? Likes to have control over people." That much, he can guess from the survivors, from Hart, from Tosh... "I'm going to give him that. Give him something full of cracks and weaknesses, something already broken and barely held together that he can play with. And I can play him right back. I can get to Jack, I can turn Thane's own subconscious mind against him..." She takes a deep breath. "And I can keep him busy for a while, I hope. But we've got no coherent strategy for dealing with him, and my Captain's the best strategist I know. Might as well try to reach him.
"After all, what else've we got at this point?"