Disclaimer: Space Cases and Doctor Who belong to not me; this story is not for sale or profit (behold, this is what surrender to the inevitable looks like).

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Chapter 7

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"Pair bonding!" Suzee blurted in surprise.

"What's pair bonding?" Rosie asked.

"Sort of like mating," Harlan smirked wickedly, "only more lovey-dovey."

"Pair bonding is sort of like dating, or getting married," Goddard corrected, shooting Harlan a quelling look. "A formalized courtship ritual within a given biocultural context."

Suzee's eyes darted towards the exam bed, where Radu remained unmoved, impassive and blissfully unaware of the potentially rather sensitive turn of subject, then away, color rising to her cheeks. She was thinking just about the same thing as everyone else in the room, except perhaps the Doctor – who knew what he was thinking – where is he going with this, and do I really want to know?

"Dad's got the right of it! Except that when it comes to Andromedans," the Doctor explained, "it's more than exchanging gold rings and letterman jackets. It's much more, well, physiological."

"What do you mean?" Bova asked, scientifically fascinated, though he still couldn't quite bring himself to look in Radu's direction any more than anyone else in the room.

"Ever hear the old saying about 'two hearts beating as one'?" the Doctor quipped. "Well, for Andromedans, it's not just a romantic cliché, it's a biological fact. Their hearing instinctively becomes fixated on their little paramour's biorhythms – particularly the heartbeat. It's the Andromedan version of staring longingly at someone across a crowded room. And because their physiology is so intrinsically tied to their hearing…"

"You mean, their heartbeats sync up?" Harlan tried.

"More than that, isn't it?" Suzee said thoughtfully, "Alltheir biopatterns must sync up. That's why his biostats are so out of joint. And that's why the scanner says nothing's wrong – because it's a naturally occurring body bioprocess!"

The Doctor was beaming proudly at their deductive capabilities (something this group was not at all used to seeing from a teacher).

"That genius is showing out!" he said cheekily. "Andromedans call it Yon-sa-ri, which crudely translates to something like, 'the blessed bonding by beneficent Yon, great high god of unity, of my humble self to the beatific drumming of the one I treasure most' – you can see why they shorten it."

"Two hearts beating as one!" Rosie grinned, temporarily caught up in the aforementioned romantic cliché. "Oh, how sweet!"

"Except when it's not," the Doctor replied conversationally. "Ever had a crush on somebody who didn't like you back? Unrequited love can cause a metabolic rain storm like you wouldn't believe – leaves an Andromedan feeling a bit under the weather for a while. Literally in their case! Ha!"

"So you're saying that Radu is in a coma on the point of death… because he has a broken heart?" Davenport asked, not even trying to keep the skepticism out of her voice.

"No!" the Doctor shot her a quizzical look, as though her density were so unbelievable as to be impressive. Then he shrugged. "Well, not really. Sort of, but not. Rather the opposite, in fact… except not exactly opposite… sort of more catty-corner, really..." the Doctor tried to diagram what he was saying with his hands and then threw them up in defeat. "He's not sick because he's been rejected, he's sick because his mind thinkshe's been rejected, while his body knowsthat he hasn't."

Comprehension dawned on Goddard's face, and he glanced around the room. The Doctor noticed – he seemed to notice everything – and gave him a quasi-respectful nod for having been the first to figure it out.

"So that's how you knew he had a non-Andromedan girlfriend…"

"Well spotted, Dad – er, Commander," the Doctor replied, giving him a half mocking little salute.

"Oh…ohhhh!" Rosie exclaimed. "You're saying that he likes somebody so much that he hassynchronized with their biopattern – but it's not an Andromedan biopattern!"

"Why should that matter?" Harlan wondered, his brow screwed up as he tried to follow the conversation.

"Well, think about it," Rosie said. "What if your human body suddenly had, say, my biopattern as a Mercurian? Your temperature could shoot up by over 100 degrees. A human body subjected to that kind of heat would be dead in a minute!" She pointed towards the exam bed. "If the Doctor is right, then the same kind of thing is happening to Radu! His biochemistry is altering to alien patterns that his body can't cope with, and it's hurting him." Her face crumpled. "Oh, that's so sad…"

"Typical," Bova agreed philosophically.

"That's crazy!" Harlan exclaimed, unaccountably angry. "What kind of stupid species has that kind of kill switch? Over a stupid crush! I mean, don't they have any self-control?"

"Mr. Band!" Miss Davenport shrilled, inwardly happy to have a target upon which to vent the frustration she was feeling in the face of so many unknown factors outside of her control. "If you ever intend to become a Stardog, you are going to have to learn to be more open to the cultural differences of other species!"

"He doeshave a point, though, Mommy Dearest," the Doctor pointed out.

"Mommy Dearest?!" Miss Davenport cried apoplectically.

The Doctor ignored her fuming and turned to Harlan. "On your average given Tuesday, yes, of course he'd be able to control it. Think of Yon-sa-ri like…" he smirked. "Like wanting to kiss somebody, so much that you almost can't help it. But just because you want to doesn't mean you have to, because you've got self-control."

Every teenager in the room suddenly took a distinct interest in the deck plates. The Doctor snickered, then cleared his throat, clearly attempting to act his age (which was more of a feat than anyone else in the room might have guessed).

"The Andromedan autonomic nervous system doeshave fail safes, you see," he went on pedantically. "The same sort that, say…" he reached into his jacket pocket, rummaged around for a moment, and whipped out a latex balloon, "won't let you hold your breath until you suffocate." He swiftly inflated it, pinching off the end and holding it up demonstratively. "Ever tried it? Can't be done! Oh, you might render yourself a bit dizzy, maybe a tad delirious if you're really dedicated – remind me to tell you the story about a breathing contest I once won on Golondan Prime, ended up covered in green paint with a pocket full of marshmallows – er, yes, not important now – the point is, eventually the autonomic nervous system," he relaxed his fingers letting the air out of the balloon, "forces you to breathe."

"So then…" Harlan started slowly. The Doctor nodded encouragingly, a hopeful expression on his face. "…why is he sick?" The Doctor's face fell.

"We're still missing something," Suzee guessed, giving Harlan a pointed look.

"No, we're not. You lot are," the Doctor retorted superciliously. "I'm just trying to be a good teacher. Socrates never had to deal with a crowd this tough, I don't mind telling you!"

"Something must have overridden his autonomic defenses," Bova chimed in.

"Good! Yes! Point to the stag beetle!" the Doctor exclaimed, dashing over to tweak one of Bova's antennae, and getting a snap of static electricity and a baleful glare for his trouble. "Ow! Anyway, what if I reminded you that the higher-than-average density of the Andromedan molecular structure creates a resonant lattice that generates a low level psionic field?"

"You mean, Radu has psychic abilities?" Rosie wondered.

"They would have to be really low level, if I can't detect it," Suzee chimed in, looking over at Radu with renewed fascination.

"More like he has a built in psychic receiver," Goddard clarified. "The Spung used to take advantage of it during the war, by sending their orders to the Andromedan fleet via psionic wave. The UPP didn't have the technology to intercept psychic transmissions back then. It was annoyingly effective."

"Hey, that makes sense!" Bova exclaimed. "Remember when Radu saved the gerkel? He knew it was in trouble inside its egg because it communicated with him telepathically!"

"And that must be why he was able to receive that psychic message from Elmira," Harlan concurred. "He was the only one she could be sure would receive it."

"Now we're getting somewhere!" the Doctor exclaimed, pulling a handkerchief out of his coat and wiping his brow as though he'd just been subjected to a great deal of intense manual labor while dragging them all onto roughly the same page.

"So you're saying that Radu is receiving some kind of subliminal psionic message that's bypassing his autonomic defenses, and because he really, really likes the person that's transmitting them, he's instinctively synced up to her biopattern, which is incompatible with his Andromedan physiology and is generating a fatal imbalance in his internal atmosphere…" Suzee paused for breath and felt a sizzle of anger eating its way to the surface of her thoughts. She'd never really had a chance to get to know Elmira, but right now she was ready to dislike her on principle. How could she do that to him!

The Doctor looked sharply round at her and then suddenly just stopped, staring at her intently. The fidgety stranger's abrupt stillness was so jarring that it commanded the attention of every eye in the room as he studied Suzee. Suzee suddenly felt very small under the weight of his attention.

Slowly, he put the balloon to his mouth again, inflated it, and then deftly tied a knot in the end. He held it up, watching her closely.

"It was all subconsciously done, I'm sure," he said. "But either way," he his fingers shifted and the balloon burst, startling everyone, "the outcome is the same."

"So, then…" Suzee shook herself, resisting the Doctor's penetrating stare, "…we just need to find Elmira and make her stop broadcasting, right? Or…" she turned to Rosie, "what do we know about Spung biopatterns? Maybe if we can figure out exactly how Elmira's biology is affecting him…"

"Oh, Suzee…" The Doctor said quietly, shaking his head, earning a frustrated look from Suzee and a general susurration of confusion from the rest of the group. "I guess we really are all fools in love. Even geniuses. Perhaps especially geniuses."

"What?"

"Aren't you forgetting? Andromedan pair bonding is based on hearing."

One by one, lightbulbs were visibly blinking on over peoples' heads.

"It can't be Elmira," Bova said.

"Because she's not here," Rosie concurred.

"And no matter how strong the psychic suggestion…" Miss Davenport mused.

"It would amount to nothing, if he wasn't close enough to hear a heartbeat." Goddard finished knowingly.

"Which means… it has to be somebody on the ship…"

"Somebody with psychic powers…"

"…and powerful enough to override the brain's and take over…"

And like a wind-up clockwork mechanism, all heads in the room turned slowly toward where Suzee was standing stock still, an expression of pure astonishment on her face.

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TBC

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A/n: It's the rejoicing festival on Saturn this week! So Catalina promised me that if you leave a review, she'll come and kick you really hard in the shin so you don't have to participate!