Text Key
'Telepathic communication'
"Gallifreyian"
-Doctor Who- chapter break
The TARDIS materialised on the rocky, red ground of Mars. Such a brilliant planet, the first to be colonised by the human race. Ariana couldn't help but grin seeing how excited her mate was about this, he was always fond of trips to alien planets even if it was in Earth's solar system and not particularly alien...he was just very pleased to be there.
They had begun making a habit of their trips recently. A trip for Ariana and then a trip for him. They'd had seen so much together and been on many adventures. It seemed as though the Doctor was making up for lost time with all these non-stop adventures he had missed without her. Sometimes it got rather tiring, but at the same time really fun! And with each trip their bond has grown stronger, seeing it, experiencing it, living it, had made them so much stronger, so much closer.
Ariana laughed whilst he secured the helmet of her spacesuit for their walk on Mars. Once prepared, he opened the doors and stepped out, holding the door open as she followed and stepped out.
"The Red Planet," he grinned happily, rather satisfied to now be here. He'd tried on aiming for the planet for the the last two trips they'd done for him and hadn't even landed in the correct galaxy both times.
"Well like the humans say," Ari commented, "The third time is the charm."
He laughed in agreement, looking out at the stunning red landscape around them, before taking Ariana's hand, both of them strolling along as if they were walking through a park. They stopped and paused at a ledge catching sight of a small base of sorts in the distance.
"Oh, beautiful!" the Doctor exclaimed at the sight. The base looked like a large dome like structure with six tunnels attached to it, with five smaller domes connected to them and a rocket.
That's when Ariana felt something hard and metal pushing into her back, "Uh...sweetie..."
Hearing the tone of his mates voice the Doctor looked over to see a small robot holding a probe against her.
"Rotate," it ordered with it's generic, metallic voice. Both of them locking eyes as they slowly turned raising their hands in the air and turned to face the little robot, "Slowly. You are under arrest for trespassing. Gadget, gadget."
The Time Lady looked down at the small robot, it had a white body with the wheels of a tank, long spindly arms and head with a camera built in. It continued to point the gun at them, joints sparking.
-Doctor Who-
An older woman with blonde hair and a stern look about her was now currently pointing her gun at the Time Lords now out of their spacesuits, the lights on it glowing blue, "State your name, rank, and intention."
The Doctor warily gazed at the gun being pointed at them, inching more closer to Ariana with an sudden instinct to protect her with him being near, "The Doctor..." he paused in thought, "Doctor..." he paused again before speaking sadly, "Fun?"
The woman gave a nod and turned to Ariana.
"Uh...Ari..." she frowned, "Medical Officer?" and gave a sigh and nodded in her mates direction, "I'm here to keep him out of trouble."
Sadly but surely she had failed miserably.
'Hey!' he spoke in her head, 'I'm never that bad!'
'Need I remind you that we ended up in the Tower of London on our previous trip,' she recalled to him.
'You know that wasn't my fault!'
'Oh, really, you tried flashing your sonic at Elizabeth IV amidst a civil war.'
'I thought the Queen was a clone!'
Before their tiny-argument could reach full scale a door burst opened and a dark skinned man came rushing inside the room, breathless having probably ran down one of long tunnels from another area on the base. He grinds to a halt, seeing the two of them standing there, with the captain pointing her gun at them, "What the hell? It's a man and a woman!" the Doctor casually just put his hands in his pockets as Ari now lowered hers, both watching the captain with interest as she continued pointing her gun, "A man and woman on Mars! How?"
A young dirty-blonde haired German woman with a side ponytail held up their suits, "They were wearing these things. I have never seen anything like it before."
"What did Mission Control say?"
"They're out of range for ten hours with the solar flares."
"If we could cut the chat, everyone," the captain cut in as she glared at them.
"Actually, chat's second on my list," the Doctor interrupted, "The first being a gun, pointed at her head..." he nodded in his mates direction, "And also my head. Which then puts our heads second and chat third, I think. Gun, heads, chat, yeah."
Ari shook her head, "Sorry, he's really bad with making lists."
The Doctor mocked her with a glare before turning his attention back to the captain, "But you could hurt someone with that thing. Just put it down."
"Oh, you'd like that," the captains sneered with narrowed eyes.
"Is there anybody else in this world who wouldn't?" the Time Lady countered.
"Why should I trust either of you?" she asked, still eyeing them with suspicion.
"Because we give you our word," the Doctor responded calmly, "And forty million miles away from home, our word is all you've got."
The captain considered his words for a moment, trying to stare the pair down but neither wouldn't budge. Slowly, but surely she now lowered the gun, "Keep Gadget covering them."
"Gadget, gadget," the robot now replied.
Both looking over their shoulders they see a young man sitting beside Gadget, wearing a pair of silver gloves with a keypad strapped before him.
"Oh right, so you control that thing," the Doctor commented, "Auto-glove response."
"You got it!" the young man replied showing off little how he controlled the robot, "To the right..." he moved his hand to the right, moving Gadget.
"Gadget, gadget."
"And to the left..." he now moved his hand left, moving the robot in the same direction.
Gadget sparked.
"It's bit of a flimsy job..." Ariana frowned, already mulling over a half a dozen ways she could fix it and make it better. As the young man now glared at her.
"Gadget, gadget!"
"Does it have to keep saying that?" the Time Lord asked, getting rather annoyed.
"I think it's funny," the young man countered with a response.
Making the Doctor tense up slightly, "I hate funny robots..." Ariana reached over laying her hand on his arm, trying to calm him a little, giving him some reassurance over her assessment of the robot.
"Excuse me, boss," a female voice comes over through the loudspeaker, "Computer log says we've got an two extra people on site. How's that possible?"
"Keep the Bio-dome closed," the captain ordered her, "And when using open comms, you call me Captain."
Both the Time Lords looked slightly impressed by how the captain and her take-charge attitude. Reminded Ari of Donna...she recalled through Alice's past memories when Donna had kicked the door opened in the Library.
"Yeah, but who is it?" the young woman asked again...but only for there to be a tiny amount of feedback as the captain disconnected the comm.
"They can't be a World State flight because we'd know about it," an older man now eyed them curiously, he had an air of authority about him, both guessing he must be second-in-command, "Therefore, they've got to be one of the independents, yeah?" the Doctor only but stood there was his arms folded across his chest while the captain came to face him, Ariana scanning around the base with her eyes a slight frown on her face, she had this niggling feeling that something was missing something important, "Was it the Branson inheritance lot? They've talked about a Mars shot for years."
"Right, yes, okay, you got us," the Doctor said impatiently, now rolling his eyes, "So, I'm the Doctor and this is my girlfriend Ariana. And you are?"
"Oh, come on!" the captain abruptly cut off with a scoff, "We're the first off-world colonists in history. Everyone on planet Earth knows who we are."
"The first?" Ariana asked, as her widen, going ridged, "The very first humans on Mars?" she slowly asked, looking around the room, "Which makes this..."
"Bowie Base One," her and the captain said together.
"Number one?" the Doctor, gaped in shock, "Founded July 1st, 2058. Established Bowie Base One in the Gusev Crater?" he looked in his mates direction who was now staring back at him in horror, just realising they were, in fact, on the first colony...which meant...
'Kas, sweetie,' Ari said ever so faintly, still in shock, 'We have to leave.'
"You've been here how long?" the Time Lord turned to them, hoping against his better judgement that they had a bit of time.
"Seventeen months," the captain responded.
"2059?" Ariana took a shuddering breath, now frightened, before quickly covering it up, "It's 2059, right now?"
"You're Captain Adelaide Brooke!" the Doctor now turned to the captain, both having recalled the date and the place where she had died...
"And Ed," the Time Lady frowned, looking over at the older man who was second-in-command, "You're Deputy Edward Gold..."
"Tarak Ital, M.D," the Doctor looked to the man who had run in earlier, "Nurse Yuri Kerenski," and to the other man with black hair.
"Senior Technician Steffi Ehrlich," Ari glanced at the woman who held up their spacesuits earlier before switching her eyes to the young man who controlled Gadget, "Junior Technician Roman Groom."
Mia now looked worried about his choice of words.
"Geologist Mia Bennett," the Doctor sadly frowned at the young Asian woman, "You're only 27 years old..."
"As I said," Adelaide informed with a roll of her eyes, "Everyone knows our names."
"Oh, they'll never forget them," he now sadly shook his head.
"What's the date, today?" Ariana quickly asked, "What is it? The exact date?"
"November 21st, 2059," Adelaide replied with a huff.
It was today. Today they were going die.
'Kas, we HAVE to leave,' Ariana seriously insisted.
He nodded to her vaguely, before he spoke to the crew, "Right! Okay, fine..."
"Is there something wrong?" Steffi asked eyeing them with concern.
"What's so important about my age?" Mia asked with a frown, now getting uncomfortable.
"Doctor," Ariana began to panic, but this time out loud, "We should...go. We really should go."
"We're sorry," the Doctor apologised as he frowned at them, "I'm sorry with all of my hearts. But it's one of those very rare times when..." Ariana took his hand and squeezed it, "When we've got no choice," she could feel the pain radiating off him from this encounter as it ate away from him, "It's been an honour!" he stepped forwards shaking everyone's hands, "Seriously, a very great honour to meet you all. The Martian pioneers. Oh, thank you!" he was about to shake Roman's hands but he still hand the gloves on, so patted the Gadgets head instead.
"Gadget, gadget."
He turned to Adelaide and gave her a salute, "Thank you!" he turned and went back over to his girlfriend in the doorway to ask, "Where's the other two. Hold on..."
"Margaret Cain and Andrew Stone," she replied, wondering the exact same thing.
"Maggie, if you want to meet the only new human beings that you're going to see in the next five years, better come take a look," Ed called to Margaret through the comms..
Instead of Maggie responding, a low, animalistic growl came over the speakers. Everyone looking up, rather unsettled.
'Well that didn't sound very good,' the Time Lord commented to his mate.
'Now, that's telling me we really, really need to go,' she responded, now growing more unsettled as the seconds ticked away, 'Now.'
"What was that?" Mia gasped in fright.
"Oh, we really should go!" the Doctor muttered, but didn't make any move to leave.
Ariana glanced between her boyfriend and the crew anxiously, knowing how much it killed them wanting to help, but knowing that this was a fixed point in time they knew they couldn't. They just couldn't...
"This is Central," Ed spoke over the comm, "Bio-dome report immediately."
"Show me the Bio-dome," Adelaide went to sit in front of the computer as Ed brought up the scans and images for her of the security footage but there was nothing only static.
"Internal cameras are down..."
"Show me the exterior."
Ed now dropped into the chair and work more on the controls, revealing an image of the Bio-dome outside, the lights inside it were going off, one by one.
"I'm going over," Adelaide announced as she stood, "Doctor, Ari, with me!"
This seemed to snap the Doctor out of his thoughts taking Ariana's hand and taking a step back together, "Yeah..." the Time Lord shook his head, "We're sorry, er...we'd love to help, but we're leaving, right now."
"Take their spacesuit," Adelaide, "Lock them up," doing as asked Steffi went and took to take them away, "This started as soon as you two arrived, so you're not going anywhere except with me."
-Doctor Who-
Ed glanced over at the Doctor, who looked uncomfortable, to Ariana who now looked a little pale and anxious to get away. But they couldn't do anything as Adelaide turned to usher the couple out of the room, handing each of them a torch, leading them down the tunnel with Tarak and Gadget, each using them to light their way, save for the Doctor who kept a protective arm around Ari as they walked. He could feel her tension from the combination of her Bond's imminent potential doom in a fiery explosion and that they had to let these people die for the sake of the timeline. He was feeling pretty much the same.
"Gadget, gadget."
"What's so important about Mia's age?" Adelaide asked, glancing over at the Doctor as they walked, "You said she's only 27. Why does it matter? What did you mean?"
"Oh, he just opens his mouth and sometimes words fall out," Ariana replied brushing the question off with a shrug, "They never make much sense...even I don't get it," she looked up giving him weary smile as he squeezed her shoulder a little more.
"You're telling me," Tarak remarked with a comment.
"Thank you, Doctor," the Doctor smiled over at the man.
"Any time," Tarak returned to him, "Doctor."
"Gadget, gadget."
The Doctor now glanced over his shoulder at the robot, "I hate robots. Did I say?"
"Yes, have many, many times," Ariana replied.
"Yeah, and he's not too fond of you!" Roman infromed with a grumble over the comm, "What's wrong with robots?"
"To be exact it's not the robot, he just takes an issue with the people," the Time Lady answered with a sigh, "That dress them up and giving them silly voices. It's like they're...reducing them."
"Yeah, friend of mine, she made her domestic robot look like a dog."
"Ah well, dogs. That's different."
"But I adapted Gadget out of the worker drones," Roman continued explaining proudly of his robot, "Those things are huge. They built this place when the shell was lowered down from orbit. They've got a strength capacity of fifteen tons..."
"The channel is open for essential communications only," Adelaide interrupted the converstion.
"Sorry..." Roman replied rather quickly, before quietly adding, "Love those drones."
Ariana carefully studied Adelaide's movements before carefully choosing her words, "We've read up on quite a lot all stuff about you, Captain Adelaide. But there is one thing they never quite explained...did..." she coughed a little to clear her throat, "Do you think this was worth it? This mission?"
Adelaide glanced over at the pair, "We've got excellent results from the soil analysis."
"No, but all of it!" the Doctor explained to her, "Because they say you sacrificed everything. Devoted your whole life to get here."
The woman was quite for only a moment before she spoke, "It's been chaos back home. Forty long years. The climate, the ozone, the oil apocalypse. We almost reached extinction. Then to fly above that, to stand on a world with no smoke, where the only straight line is the sunlight? Yes. It's worth it."
Both the Time Lords grinned back at her, "Ah. That's the Adelaide Brooke I always wanted to meet!"
"The woman with starlight in her soul," Ariana added softly.
Adelaide was now staring straight ahead, not having acknowledged their words, only to see a faint outline of a smile on her face. But it only faded quickly as they see something a few feet away, "What's that?" they all ran forwards towards it seeing the body of unconscious black woman lying before them, "It's Maggie."
"Don't touch her!" Ariana quickly warned them.
"I know the procedure!" he snapped at her before leaning over Maggie, speaking calmly to her pulling on some rubber gloves, "Maggie, can you hear me? It's Tarak. Maggie..." he now rolled her over, "It's ok, she's still breathing."
The Doctor and Ariana looked up through the darkness of the hallway, lit up only by dim emergency lights.
"She's alive!" Tarak called, pulling out his comm link, "Yuri, I've got Margaret Cain, head trauma. I need a full med-pack."
"I've got it," Yuri reported back, "Med-pack on its way.
A few moments later both Ed and Yuri came running down the corridor with a white stretcher and med-pack.
"Don't touch her," the Time Lord warned them, crossing his arms, "Use the gloves."
"Do what he says," Tarak agreed with a nod, leaning over Maggie, "Get her to Sickbay," he now ordered to Yuri, "Put her in isolation."
"We're going on to the Bio-dome," Adelaide replied, as she stood back up, "Tarak, with me. Yuri can take care of her. Ed, go back. Gadget, stand guard. Keep an eye on this area."
"Gadget, gadget."
"Captain, you're going to need me," Ed said turning to her as she sighed, "Andy is the only other crew member out here, and if that wasn't an accident," a startled look came across Yuri's face at the suggestion, "Then he's gone wild."
"You've deserted your post," Adelaide tensed up giving him a stern look, "Consider that an official warning. Now get back to work. Ari! Doctor!"
Both of them briefly glanced at Ed for a moment all three of them understanding the danger that might await them inside the bio-dome. The Doctor took his mates hand tightly in his own before they headed down the corridor, following Adelaide.
Steffi's voice came over the comm just as they reached the air locked doors of the Bio-dome, "Captain, that sound we heard from the Bio-dome, I've run it through diagnostics. According to the computer, it's...it's Andy," the group exchanged a look as they stepped inside the airlock, "It registers as the voice print of Andy Stone."
"Understood. Double check, thanks."
"Air-pressure stabilised," Tarak called over from the keypad as the doors opened. Adelaide was the first to step inside, followed by the Time Lords, and lastly Tarak. The two crew members flashed their torches about the room, as Ariana walked over towards a computer she spotted, they were going to need far much more light than this to survive if indeed this Andy person was out to get them.
"Andrew?" Adelaide yelled for the man, "Andrew Stone? It's Captain Brooke. Andy, report. I need to see you. Where are you?"
Ari yanked out two wires, fiddling with them as she tried to connect them in the dim lighting when the Doctor strode over and pulled out his sonic, getting the lights back on with just a single flash at the controls.
"Now that's just cheating," Ariana returned with a smirk as he helped her back up.
"Hey!" he returned mockingly, "You've got your own sonic too you know!" he waggled it before her and flipped it in his hand.
"What's that device?" Adelaide eyed the device in his hand.
"Screwdriver," the Doctor replied holding it up.
"Are you the Doctor or the Janitor?"
"I don't know, sounds like me," he shrugged with a smile, putting his sonic away.
"More like Maintenance Man of the whole Universe," the Time Lady joked with a chuckle.
"You stay with me," Adelaide turned to him it obvious she didn't trust him around anyone but her, "Don't step out of my sight. Tarak..." she turned to him, "Take Ari with you, go to External Door South. Make sure it's intact..."
"No," the Doctor interrupted, tightening his grip on his girlfriend, "Ari stays with me..." Adelaide started to open her mouth, "Or neither of us are going in there and we'll just stand by the door."
Adelaide gave a huff of defeat and rolled her eyes, "Fine, Tarak, external south door."
"Yes, ma'am," Tarak responded with a nod.
Adelaide watched him walk away before leading the pair through rows of plants.
The Doctor looked around him at the various plants growing in pots and racks as they walked through. Ariana eyeing up them up closely, "This is quite an achievement," she told Adelaide, "The first ever flower on Mars in 10,000 years."
"And you're growing veg as well!" the Doctor laughed with amazement.
"It's that lot," Adelaide remarked dismissively, "They're already planning Christmas dinner. Last year it was dehydrated protein, this year they want the real thing."
"Still, fair enough," the Time Lord shrugged, "Christmas."
"If we must," Adelaide returned with a small smile.
"You've got birds!" Ariana looked up soon as they heard the birds chirping and tweeting above them.
"It's part of the project, to keep the insect population down."
"Good sign," the Doctor agreed.
"In what way?"
"Well, they're still alive."
The comm now started crackling as Yuri's voice came through, "Captain, good news. It's Maggie. She's awake. She's back with us," there's some rustling before he speaks again, "Hey. How are you, soldier? Just take it easy. Can you remember what happened?"
"I was just...working," Maggie replied, "Then I woke up here."
"What about Andy?" Adelaide now asked her, "We can't find him. Was he alright?"
"I don't know. I just..."
"If you remember anything, let me know straight away."
"Yuri, does she know how she ended up in the tunnel?" Ed now called through.
"And keep the comms clear. Everything goes through me, got that?"
-Doctor Who-
They are almost halfway through the Bio-dome when Yuri's voice comes through the comms, "This is Sickbay," she sounded rather distressed, "We have a situation! Maggie's condition has...I don't know! I don't know what it is! It's...it's water, just pouring out!"
"Yuri, calm down," Adelaide called through her comm after picking it up. Both the Time Lords now sharing a look of concern, "Just tell me what's happened to her."
"The skin is...sort of broken around the mouth. And she's exuding water, like she's drowning!"
"Tarak, this area's unsafe," Adelaide called over to him through the comm, "We're going back. Tarak? Tarak!"
"Where was he?" the Doctor urgently asked looking around.
Adelaide took off, running through the Bio-dome heading back towards the south door, Ariana and the Doctor running after her. They went by more rows of plants when Adelaide had suddenly had stopped. Ariana took hold of her mates arm as he continued to run, tugging him back in the other direction to where Adelaide stood. There, right at the end of the row, they see Andy standing over Tarak who was kneeling, his hand was touching his head, pouring water all over him.
Ari moved her torch to shine the light over them both.
"Andy," the Doctor began, hesitantly but softly, "Just leave him alone."
Adelaide got out her gun, aiming it towards Andy, "Step away from him officer, that's an order. As captain of this group, I order you, don't!"
The Time Lady looked between the two as Adelaide took a few more steps forward, speaking just when the Doctor said, "We can help, we promise! We can help! Just leave that man alone. Andy, I'm asking you to take your hand away from him and listen to us."
Ariana now ran up to them, putting each arm in front of them both, stopping them, as Andy turned his head towards them. Adelaide let out a gasp, upon seeing his face. Around the edges of his mouth were dried and cracked as mud on a scorching hot day, still leaking water while his eyes were nearly white as a sheet. He just stared blankly at them, eyes wide with no emotion, lifted his hand off Tarak's head who had now fallen to the ground unconscious.
"There now, that's better, hmm?" the Doctor greeted quietly and calmly as possible, "So, you must be Andy. Hello."
"Sweetie," Ariana murmured nervously, "I don't think that's such a good idea."
Tarak slowly rised and turned to them, his mouth cracked and eyes white just like Andy's, leaking water.
"We've really gotta go," Ariana quickly turned to Adelaide.
The three of them turned and ran, with Andy and Tarak on their heels through the Bio-dome. They get to the door, pried it open and ran through it.
"Set the seals on maximum!" Ariana shouted out to the captain as she and her mate worked together on shutting the door, just about managing to get it closed before Andy had raised his arm shooting a jet of water at them.
The Doctor pounced away from the door, pulling his mate with him, both of them almost going into Adelaide as she stared through the little window as Andy approached who started banging his face against it.
"Captain, we need you back here," Steffi now came of the comm.
"Just tell me that Maggie is contained," Adelaide responded, her voice shaking slightly, "Can you confirm, Ed?"
"Confirmed," her second-in-command replied, "She's locked in."
"Keep surveillance till I get back. And close down all water supplies. All pipes and outlets. Don't consume anything. Have you got that, everyone? That's an order. Don't drink the water. Don't even touch it. Not one drop."
Ari slowly walked towards the door, staring through the window at Andy who only but stared back, as if it was trying to find some way inside.
"Can you talk?" the Doctor asked as they continued to watch Andy through the window.
"Human beings are sixty percent water," Ariana offered in thought, "Which makes them the perfect host..."
"What for?" Adelaide asked her with a frown.
"Don't know," the Time Lord only but shook his head, pulling his girlfriend away.
"And we never will," Ariana agreed, turning to her mate, "Because we've have to go. Whatever's started here, we can't help you see it out to the end. Sorry but we just can't."
Suddenly Andy slammed himself against the door, causing them to jump as Tarak came along to help, both spraying water from their mouths at the doors seal.
"This thing's airtight, yeah?" the Doctor asked nervously, pulling Ariana by the hand tugging her behind him.
"And therefore watertight," Adelaide replied with a nod.
"Now that would depend on how cleaver this water actually is, don't ya think?" Ariana offered with a mumble as the lock started to suddenly spark.
"They're fusing the system!"
"Abandon ship!" the Time Lord shouted, pushing both women through the second door. They get out into the tunnel, with Andy and Tarak having managed to get through the second door and chase after them.
Ariana came skidding to halt in front of Gadget, whipping out her sonic.
"We haven't got time!" Adelaide shouted over to her.
"These guys can run faster than us," the Time Lady replied, shining her sonic at the robot, "So we're going to need something that's much faster than them."
"Gadget, gadget."
The Doctor hopped on behind Gadget, pulling his girlfriend up also, "Get on!"
"That thing goes at two miles an hour!" Adelaide's countered.
"Not any more it won't," Ari replied.
"So trust us," the Doctor added.
Adelaide looked over her shoulder at the fast approaching figures before taking the Time Lady's outstretched hand and jumping on beside her. Ariana flashes her sonic once again, nodding to her mate.
"Ready, gadget?" he asked the robot.
"Gadget, gadget."
The Doctor whizzed off, flames seeping out of the small robot as it sped down the hallway, leaving twin trails of its flaming tyre tracks behind. Both Andy and Tarak trying to keep up but struggling.
The Time Lord continued looking forward with a face of grim determination as Ariana kept him informed of their progress from behind as both she and Adelaide tightly held on to the sides of Gadget. Soon enough they had reached the tunnels end, the robot looking a little worse for wear and burnt on its edges.
"The Central Dome airlocks have got Hardinger seals," Adelaide informed, jumping off Gadget and hurriedly getting the door unlocked to the central dome, "There's no way they can get in."
They ran through, as the Doctor held open the door for Gadget, "Come on, come on!"
"Gadget, gadget."
"Come on, come on!" he urgently ushered the robot which was being rather clumsy moving towards the door.
"I thought you hated robots!" Adelaide shouted in remark.
"I do!"
"Yeah only if they save lives," Ari amended.
Soon as Gadget had finally rolled through into the room, they quickly shut the door behind them, sealing it off from Andy and Tarak just as they reached it.
"We're safe," Adelaide gasped, "It's hermetically sealed. They can't get in."
"Water is patient," Ariana informed her with a shake of her head, "Water always waits, wears down the clifftops, mountains, the whole world..." she gave her a meaningful look, "And water always wins."
"Come on!" the Doctor shouted, grabbing her hand and taking her out the room, Adelaide following after them as she got out her comm.
"Bio-dome tunnel is out of bounds," she announced, opening another door to another tunnel, "Andy and Tarak are infected. Repeat, infected. Make no contact. And if they make the slightest move, tell me. I'm going to the Medical Dome."
They ran down the tunnel towards the Medical Dome but the Time Lord couldn't but help remark, "Blimey, it's a distance. You could do with bikes in this place."
"Every pound in weight equals three tons of fuel."
"Yeah, I know, but bikes..."
Adelaide looked at the Doctor as if he was mad.
"Trust me I know that feeling well," Ariana commented to the captain.
Adelaide only but shook her at them both before running into Medical Dome where they find Yuri and Ed watching Maggie, standing behind glass. She looked exactly like Tarak and Andy, except for her eyes not being white.
"Has that door got a Hardinger seal?" Adelaide asked eying the door that's a few feet from Maggie.
"No, just basic," Ed simply replied.
"Then the moment she heads for the door, we evacuate. Got that?"
Ed turned back to the medical monitor, "Pulse is low," he informed, "Electrical activity in the brain seems to be going haywire."
"Can she talk?"
"Don't know," Yuri remarked with a shake of their head, "She was talking before we noticed the change, but..."
"Maggie, can you hear me?" Adelaide walked over and stood before the glass, "Do you know who I am?" Maggie didn't respond, instead she turned her eyes to the Time Lords, "Your commanding officer, Captain Adelaide Brooke. Can you tell me what happened?"
The Doctor began speaking in an odd language, Ariana joining in now and again, as the crew looked at them in confusion...all except Maggie who just stared at them, eyes having gotten wider.
"What language is that?" Ed asked with a frown.
"It's Ancient North Martian," Ariana informed.
"Don't be ridiculous," Adelaide disbelievingly scoffed.
"It's like she recognised it," Ed commented.
"And her eyes are different," the Doctor frowned, looking at Maggie, "They're clear, like she's closer to human."
"Not close enough for me."
"Where do you source your water from?" the Time Lady asked, eyeing the water that dripped out of Maggie's mouth.
"The ice field," the captain replied, "That's why we chose the crater. We're on top of an underground glacier."
The Doctor nodded, "Tons of water. Marvellous."
"But every single drop is filtered," Yuri argued shaking his head, "It's screened. It's safe."
The Doctor scoffed nodding his head at Maggie, "Looks like it, yeah."
"If something was frozen down there..."Ed began, "A viral life form, held in the ice for all those years."
"Look closely at her mouth," the Time Lady softly murmured, as she leant forwards, "It has blackened, developing some sort of fission. This thing, whatever it is, doesn't hide in the water, it creates water."
The Doctor now stepped beside Ari, looking at Maggie, "Tell us what you want."
"She was looking at the screen, at Earth," Yuri said as Maggie stared back, "She wanted Earth. A world full of water."
"Captain, with me,"Ed now insisted, heading to the other side of the room with Adelaide. But both the Time Lords now exchanged a glance before the Doctor headed towards the computer with intent on listening while Ariana kept watch on Maggie.
"I'm sorry, but it's an unknown infection and it's spreading," Ed said with a hushed tone, even with the Time Lords heightened sense of hear they could still hear him, "That demands Action Procedure One."
"Do you think I don't know that?" Adelaide demanded with a glare.
"I think you need reminding."
"Yeah," she tiredly nodded.
"Well, at least I'm good for something."
"Now and again," she returned with a tiny smile.
Ed returned with half a smile, "That's almost a compliment. Things must be serious."
Both of them now smiled, when the Doctor interrupted their bonding moment, "Sorry, sorry, but, Action One, that means evacuation, yeah?" he looked over his shoulder at his girlfriend who had since moved closer to the computer where he'd just been, looking on.
Adelaide responded with a nod, "We're going home," she grabbed her comm, "This is Captain Brooke. I'm declaring Action One. Repeat to all crew members, this is Action One with immediate effect," the alarm started to sound, "Evacuate the base," she waits a moment before speaking again, "Steffi what's your estimate on shuttle viability?"
"It's a nine month flight..." Steffi began to explain, "It'll take us at least three hours to load up everything we need."
"You've got twenty minutes! And give me a report on Andy and Tarak."
"Still in the Bio-dome tunnel. They're just standing there, like they're waiting."
"Keep an eye on them, and make that twenty minutes fifteen," she looked over seeing the Doctor and Ariana standing near to where Maggie is contained, they had odd expressions across their faces as if they were having a private conversation but neither of them was speaking, "Ed, line up the shuttle. Go straight to ignition status."
"Doing it now!" Ed charged out of the room.
"But what about Maggie?" Yuri asked with a frown.
"She stays behind," Adelaide responded as she continued packing, "We've got no way to contain her on board. Close this place down. I want the power directed to the shuttle."
"Of course, the only problem is..." the Time Lord began, as he walked over. Both of the Time Lords having been discussing the procedure, how that it wouldn't work...and how to actually keep them from going through with it, not because the knew that the base was destined to explode, but because any of the other crew members could have possibly been infected without them knowing, just like Maggie had been.
"Thank you, Doctor, Ari. Your spacesuit will be returned. And good luck to you."
"The problem is that this thing is exceptionally clever," Ariana now stepped up also, "The birds were living inside the Bio-dome, but never got infected. Which means this infection, is clever enough to choose humans as their hosts. I told you, Adelaide, water can wait. Tarak and Andy changed the very moment they got infected, but with Maggie...it had stayed hidden inside her. So it could infiltrate the Central Dome. Which means..."
Adelaide nearly stumbled in realisation, "Any one of us could already be infected. We've all been drinking the same water."
"And if you take that back to Earth..." the Doctor confirmed with a nod, "One drop. Just one drop."
"But...we're only presuming infection," she argued desperately, "If we can find out how this thing got through, when it got through..." she turned, "Yuri, continue with Action One. I'm going to inspect the ice field."
Yuri nodded and went on with his work as Adelaide left the room.
Ariana gave a sigh and turned to her mate, "We should leave. Now. We should go..."
He looked down to her and nodded, "No point in us seeing the ice field...no point at all...no..."
His girlfriend only but shook her head, noticing where his thoughts were going, "Sweetie, we just can't..." she took hold of his hand in hers, "We just can't stay here to find what is going to happen next. We've gotta leave. Now."
The Doctor began to hesitate, "But what if it's like Pompeii?"
"Then we'll be the ones who caused it," she recalled, having remembered slight snippets of Alice's adventure to the ancient Roman city.
"Then lets be the ones to cause it," he countered.
Ariana frowned up at him, "I felt that pain you went through with Pompeii," she went on softly squeezing his hand, "Do really want to go through that same pain again?"
He didn't give her a response, looking over her shoulder in the direction Adelaide had went, "I'm sorry...Ari" he whispered, affectionately kissing her forehead, "Pompeii or not we need to see this through to the end..." he took her hand and squeezed it.
No matter how desperately he wanted to leave, get Ariana away from this place before it got too dangerous, so far the crew were planning to leave, if this was the same as Pompeii, they would have to stay here and make sure it would explode...no matter how devastating the outcome would be.
He turned on his heels and pulled his mate down the hallway after the captain, "Adelaide!"