Title: Key 2 Time 2: Part 5: Calm in the Face of Danger
Author: sneakyangel and HearMeCalling
Rating: G
Characters: Romana III, Amy, K9.
Spoilers: You're kidding right? We're not psychic!
Summary: It's not always easy to remain calm when you face your worst nightmare.
Disclaimer: Big Finish owns our souls, we own nothing.
Notes: If you wish to read this and have it make the tiniest amount of sense, we recommend reading:
Part 1: On the Other Side
Part 2: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Part 3: Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall
Part 4: The Ignorance of Youth
Key 2 Time 2: Part 5: Calm in the Face of Danger
Amy sighed a heavy sigh of relief as she saw K9 trundling his way towards her. She wasn't sure why he was coming, after all she hadn't called for him, but a relief it was nevertheless. It was probably due to the mountain collapsing and him wanting to check that they'd got out of there unscathed. One of them had, at least.
"Mistress Amy" K9 chirruped once he arrived at her feet.
"Oh K9, thank goodness." She quickly indicated to Romana lying beside her. "She has some sort of infection and now she's unconscious. K9 help me, I don't know what to do."
"You should bring the Romana-Mistress back to the TARDIS. You will assist me from there."
"Right, K9."
Romana had started muttering in her sleep. None of it made any sense to Amy, so she thought best to ignore it until she sounded more coherent. Still, she obeyed K9 and hauled Romana back onto her shoulders. It seemed she had turned into some kind of carry-horse and she wasn't particularly looking forward to being bossed around by K9. It was one thing Romana telling her what to do, but another thing entirely if the computer was bossing her around.
"Lord Rassilon!" Romana gasped, quite suddenly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to happen."
"Romana?" Amy hadn't expected Romana to come out with words so quickly. "Romana can you hear me? Don't worry. You'll be okay."
Amy enunciated clearly and slowly. She was sure if K9 had emotions he'd be sniggering to himself as he led the way back to the TARDIS. Seeing the grey box was remarkably reassuring and caused Amy to hurry towards it. K9 opened the door for them, and once all three of them were safely in the console room, he shut it again before giving her any more instructions.
"You must take her through to the medical bay for analysis."
"Doctor? Doctor, is that you?"
"It's not the Doctor, Romana, its Amy," Amy muttered, almost out of habit now. "And K9," she added quickly, not wanting to hurt the automaton's feelings.
K9 led her through many corridors to the medical bay. The TARDIS corridors were another thing Amy doubted she'd ever learn. They were all boring, plain and twisted into dimensions that should surely be impossible. Still, she was relieved once they reached the medical bay. A thought had crossed her mind that whatever Romana had could be contagious, and it just took longer to develop in humans. Unfortunately, she had vocalised these fears, meaning K9 insisted on scanning her before they could continue with anything else.
"What now K9?" she enquired, hoping he wouldn't insist on cross-checking her immunity and let them start on helping Romana.
"I require a sample of the bacterium in order to analyse to develop the anti-bacterial." K9 announced. "But first, take the sedative clearly labelled in the cupboard to the left of the bed and inject into a vein in Mistress Romana's left arm."
"I don't think Romana needs sedating any further. She's unconscious as it is, but who am I to argue."
Thoroughly unsure of herself, Amy opened the cupboard, and as promised, a sedative for Time Lords was clearly marked. K9 barked orders on how to carry out the injection, and between them they managed to carry out the simple procedure.
"There's a rash on her arm K9, can you get a sample from that?"
The robot dog was becoming extremely irascible. "The sedative will stop her from calling out, Mistress Amy. The rash will have to do. Take a swab…"
Amy only listened enough to K9 to know what she was meant to put where to make the antibiotic in order to know what she had to put in what test tube and what machine. She had a feeling she would enjoy this kind of thing if it wasn't for the situation. Still, she couldn't help smiling when she finally held a sample of the antibacterial for Romana. She walked over and opened her friend's mouth and gently tipped it into her throat.
"I just hope we made this in time," she muttered sourly. "Romana?"
When Romana didn't respond, she began to worry again. What they had made was apparently her only chance. K9 nearly knocked her out of the way to scan Romana. Amy thought the tin creature should at least have some manners, even in dire emergencies. He backed away and bleeped for a while before he started talking to Amy again.
"My sensors indicate that she will recover fully. She needs to rest. I suggest you put the segment in a safe place and go rest yourself."
"No K9. I'm staying here with her. The segment is perfectly safe on the side over there."
The smallest defiance made Amy feel thoroughly human again. She was beginning to get fed up of taking instruction after instruction. She sat on the cold, hard floor, partially regretting it. She knew she could wait in many more comfortable environments, or try and concentrate on where the next segment could be. A few hours passed, with Amy getting increasingly uncomfortable and increasingly bored. Her stubbornness always prevailed though. She would not move until Romana could.
"Where am I?" Romana muttered, very groggily. She attempted to sit up. "Ow, my head."
Amy jumped to her feet. It had felt like she had been sitting and waiting for an age.
"Don't get up Romana," she said with far more authority than she felt. "You are in the TARDIS sick bay. You're safe in here."
"The TARDIS sick bay? But what happened? What about the segment?"
"You got an infection and collapsed. K9 and I made an antibiotic which cured you," she announced proudly. "Don't worry about the segment, it's over there on the table and K9 is off doing something."
"Thank you. " She sounded like she actually meant it, which in Amy's opinion was a change. Romana tried getting to her feet despite what she'd been instructed to do otherwise, and failed dismally "This is not what we needed to beat your sister and the Doctor to segments is it?"
"Don't get up. You're weak and you need to rest. And don't think about the Key. We have a segment, which is one less that the Doctor and Zara can have."
"But that means there are only 3 left! We don't have time for me to be ill... why didn't you get affected anyway, I wonder?"
"You are no good to anyone if you are sick. And with one segment, well, the Doctor will have to find us if he and the Black Guardian really want the Key to be complete," she replied. "And it doesn't matter why I wasn't affected. We have some more of the antibiotics in case you need any more."
"But... oh never mind." Amy was surprised that Romana's defiance had disappeared slightly, despite illness. "Have you rested and eaten lately?"
"Don't worry about me. I've been sitting here with you for the past couple of hours and I'm not hungry at all. You just stay there until you are completely better," Amy assured her. "I'm going to put the segment in the safe, though."
As Amy left, K9 rolled back into the sick bay. Romana was still trying desperately to get up. How could she be ill? When she was she was better perfectly quickly. She'd had a refreshing sleep and now she was fine. Apart from the inability to stand and the thumping headache, that was. Still, it was always seventeenth time lucky.
"Mistress Romana, you require a fresh dose of your antibiotic."
"Yes, yes. Fine K9."
The second dose was already on the bedside cabinet, at arms reach. Grimacing slightly, she swallowed it in one gulp. Now she'd taken that, she'd surely be able to get up so they could get on.
"If you carry on trying to get up, I shall have to stun you."
"No, K9, you shall not. You know Time Lords have a faster healing rate than other humanoids."
"It is the Amy-Mistress' orders. And you are still not well. This unit is programmed to protect."
Romana rolled her eyes. "President of the Time Lords and not even allowed to get up because my pet says so." She raised her voice whilst glaring at the metal dog. "Look, K9..."
Amy was surprised that she found the safe; she couldn't even remember the way back to the console room. She just assumed it was instinct or something like that. Either way, she hoped she could rely on whatever it was that got her to the safe to get her back to the sick bay.
"Amy!" said a booming voice, startling Amy. She quickly locked the safe and spun around. She saw him standing there behind her. The person laughed. "Everything is working out the way I planned." Panic flooding through Amy, she turned and ran blindly through the TARDIS. She found the sick bay relatively quickly and stumbled through the door.
"R-R-R-R-Romana. I-I-I-I-I just saw him. Here in the T-T-T-T-ARDIS," she stammered, out of breath.
Romana stood up, her head still pounding but she couldn't worry about that now. "Retract that laser of yours, K9. The Black Guardian? Where? What did he say? It requires an incredible amount of power to send a projection into a TARDIS... "
"N-N-N-N-Near the safe. He saw the segment. He knows we have the segment. He knows you're travelling with me. He said that everything is happening the way he planned. Then I ran."
Romana sighed, "Why doesn't that surprise me? Amy, calm down. There's nothing we can do but carry on with our task, and be prepared. Well more prepared. We can't have us falling unconscious again, can we?" And with that, she swept out of the sick bay, to the console room, thoroughly relieved that K9 hadn't stunned her. Amy followed Romana, closely. The encounter with the Black Guardian had unnerved her. Just as she had started to calm down, she saw him again.
"Romana," the Black Guardian boomed, "I see you have not learnt from last time. You cannot stop me "
"And I see you, Black Guardian, have not learned about meddling with sentient life forms. As for not stopping you, well, history shows that it's all on my side," Romana said calmly, but with fire in her eyes. Amy had to admire her for that. "Amy, get that control... no the one next to it. We need to get away from this projection. We've been here far, far too long." Romana started tapping furiously at the controls, attempting to put as much distance as she could between them and the Black Guardian.
"You can't deny fate, Romanadvoratrelundar. But then again, you've always been such an arrogant child, thinking you can do anything," the Black Guardian said, smugly.
Amy couldn't stand it. "She's beaten you before and she'll beat you again. You might have brainwashed my sister and the Doctor, but you'll never get me," she yelled.
"Amy, please. The sooner we're away from here, the better. You can't let your emotions get the better of you."
"And there she goes again. Always giving out orders because she feels a sense of loss if she has no authority."
"You know what, Black Guardian? We're getting bored of listening to you." She pushed down a lever, and, with relish, said, "goodbye!"
They escaped from the Black Guardian, for now. Romana slipped down the console, breathing heavily. That encounter had taken more out of her than she had anticipated.
Look out for Part 6, coming soon!