AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I'm glad you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it. And thank you to Persiflage for beta reading.
Disclaimer: I don't own Droctor Who.
Chapter 9
Martha watched the Doctor as he worked on the console to send a message to Laduria. After a few minutes he stepped away from the console and moved to where she stood near the door of the TARDIS.
"I've sent the message," the Doctor told her. "Now all we can do is wait for their reaction."
"Let's go back to the control room," Martha said. They left the TARDIS and made their way back. When they got near the place where they had met the Ladurian they saw Vanessa and two other crewmen running toward them. They stopped when they reached them.
"What are you doing out here?" asked Vanessa. "We've got a Ladurian on the loose. You should be in the control room."
"Yeah, we've met the Ladurian," Martha said. "He was unconscious when we left him. I hit him with a metal bar. It was at the end of this corridor in the direction were you came from."
"He wasn't there anymore. He must have woken up before we got there," Vanessa said.
She seemed to be very worried about the whole situation. And Martha understood perfectly why. This one Ladurian could do much damage. He already had. They needed to find him as soon as possible, preferably before he was able to deactivate the lock-down around the section with the other Ladurians. Or they would be in even more trouble.
"We should have made sure he couldn't get away. Like tying him up or something," Martha said.
"That wouldn't have stopped him," the Doctor told her. "Ladurians are stronger than humans. And he would have woken up before we could finish tying him up."
"Do you have any idea where he might go?" Vanessa asked.
"He will try to find a way to deactivate the lock-down. He already tried but it didn't work. That's why he wanted to force me to do it. That was before Martha knocked him out," the Doctor told her. "He will try again. And he will sabotage vital systems if he gets the chance."
Vanessa nodded. "I will place guards everywhere he is likely to show up. And we will keep searching for him. Sooner or later we will find him." She paused for a moment. "You two should get back. The control room and the section around it are the only safe places right now."
"But we could help you," Martha said.
"There is nothing you could do. We know every inch of this station. You don't. And we are trained for something like this. Just leave it to us. You've been through enough in the last hours.
She ordered one of her men to escort them back to the control room despite the protest of both Martha and the Doctor.
"Did you contact Laduria?" asked Vanessa before they parted company.
"Yes," the Doctor answered. "I don't think they will send us a reply, so we just have to wait and see if they will do something," the Doctor answered.
Vanessa left to resume her search for the Ladurian. Martha and the Doctor made their way back to the control room.
"I feel a bit bad for not helping her and for going back into the safe area while she is out here," Martha said.
"She was right," the Doctor answered. "She is trained for it. We will be of more use for Captain Bennett and your friend Mike."
Martha paused a moment. There was something in his voice when he said "your friend Mike". It sounded almost jealous. Was it possible that he was jealous because of her flirting with Mike before all this happened? It wasn't the first time that she had this impression since they landed on this spacestation. She had thought she was imagining it. But that was before he had kissed her. That kiss that made absolutely no sense in her mind. He wasn't interested in her like this.
She shook her head. It was just wishful thinking. Surely his feelings for her hadn't changed. Why would they? This was just her seeing things she wanted to see. There was still nothing she wanted more than for him to see her. Really see her. But he didn't. He still had feelings for someone else and would never have those kind of feelings for her. After two years with him she was sure of that. She had to stop hoping and hearing jealousy in his voice when there was none.
But something made no sense: Why did he kiss her?
She pushed that thought out of her mind. She would ask him what it meant when this was all over. She wanted to hear an explanation. But she didn't think he would tell her what she wanted to hear.
...
When they reached the control room they were greeted by Mike and Captain Bennett. The Doctor told Bennett about their meeting with the Ladurian and everything else that happened after they had left to contact Laduria. Bennett wasn't pleased that the Ladurian had got away again, but he said that it was good that they now knew what he was going to do. He was confident that Vanessa would find him soon.
After the conversation with Bennett the Doctor helped Mike who was trying to fix the systems that had been sabotaged by the Ladurian. Martha went to help the medical personnel with the crewmen who had been injured during the attack. There was only one other doctor on the spacestation so the medical team had been having problems looking after everyone who had been injured. They were very grateful for Martha's help.
It took them a while to look after everyone who had been injured and three hours after Martha had joined them they got two new patients. They were members of Vanessa's team had been injured when they had almost caught the Ladurian.
...
Hours past and it was late evening by the time every patient had been treated. Martha met the Doctor and Mike in a small room that had been converted into a temporary cafeteria because the usual one was too far away from the control room. The entire crew was now in the section around the control room except Vanessa and her team.
"Hey," she greeted them. The Doctor smiled at her and patted the char next to him to invite her to sit down. She gripped a tray with food and sat down on the chair.
"Did you hear something from Vanessa?" she asked and started eating. The dinner was already cold because everyone else had eaten hours ago, but she was very hungry and didn't mind that much.
"Not after they brought the two crewmen back who had been injured, so you probably know more than us," the Doctor answered.
"All we know is that the Ladurian hasn't sabotaged anything again. Till now," Mike added.
The door opened again and Captain Bennett walked in. He looked very tired after hours of worrying and had dark circles under his eyes.
"Sir," Mike greeted him. Bennett nodded. He gripped a tray with dinner like Martha had done before and sat down on the last free chair at their table.
"I wanted to thank you both for your help," he said to Martha and the Doctor.
"It was our pleasure," Martha said.
They sat there in companionable silence for a while, Martha and Captain Bennett both eating. But then they were interrupted by the alarm sounding for the third time since Martha and the Doctor had arrived. They abandoned their dinner and ran out of the room. Outside they saw Vanessa running toward them.
"What's going on?" Bennett asked.
"Sorry, sir," she began. "The Ladurian got past us. He managed to open one of the sealed doors to the section the other Ladurians were locked in."
"Are you saying ...," Bennett began.
"Yes sir. We have now 85 Ladurians running around freely on this spacestation."
AN: Please let me know what you think.
