X.
-o0O0o-
There was a crack in her nail polish. Come to think of it, the whole thing was more than sloppily painted. The polish had been cheap, that why she could see the strokes she had done mere day ago on a completely different planet. Her gaze wandered down to the soft blue carpet and the shaking started anew.
There, on her middle finger, there was another crack in her nail polish.
But the colour blue had already reminded her of the soft blue shimmer oft that strange barrier they had passed after climbing maintenance shaft after maintenance shaft. They weren't really maintenance shafts, just the shortcuts for the Kapoaka who didn't wish to use the long wide corridors made for the Time Lords and thus the ceilings had no need for being higher than five feet.
And that shimmer remembered her of the flames.
The pod they had pushed the poor private in kept the newly mutated virus inside while providing the ill body with everything the patient needed. It soothed the pain, and they were in pain, and comforted them for the last few days of their lives. Because once you were in a pod, you never left it, not even dead. They simply pushed a button and incinerated you, then cleaned it and put the next patient in it. The whole Section Beta-0R3 with its seven Transportation Deck was filled with row after row after row of these.
And then there was what became of the patients. What is going to become of her. The swollen, half decomposed bodies, and the whimpers. The whimpers, because they couldn't scream anymore.
"Doctor" she whispered, without lifting her head out of the cocoon she had curled herself into on the couch on his apartment. The aggerated pacing before her stopped. She couldn't bear to be touched by anybody right now and she was more than glad he respected it. "Promise to kill me before I become like that."
"You are not going to," Sheela snapped sharply.
"Oh really," the Doctor hissed back. "This is the Flu! How's she not going to become like that!"
Amy rose her head for the first time. That was definitely not the flu. "The… Flu?"
"The Ebsai Flu. Not Influenza," the Doctor corrected. "The most deadliest pandemic of the universe. I should have known. It's the only illness the symptoms fitted, the only illness of which a Time Lord can't regenerate to get cured. But the incubation time is wrong, and that put me off. Seven days, not three!"
Then he stopped. "No. Something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong. Everybody on this ship had been infected. But that's wrong. This is the Flu, the pandemic who razed out whole planar systems within two weeks. That's what put me off. You should be dead. You should be dead a hundred times now. How are you not dead!"
"Because Sikhu has developed a cure."
"There is no cure," the Doctor prompted.
"There is now. I haven't suffered for the last 237 years, for this to fail at such a critical point."
The Doctor sunk down in an armchair, then smiled disbelievingly. "Well, look at that. Why I am I even surprised. Leave it to the Kapoaka to develop a cure against the Ebsai Flue. Best Bioengineers, indeed."
Sheela bowed. "Everything we archived and everything we are, is only possible to the benevolence of the Time Lords."
The Doctor huffed, then suddenly jumped up. "Two-hundred- thirty-seven? You are the Patient Zero! That's why they hate you this much! Why are you still alive?"
Sheela tensed, and her gaze dropped to the tips of her boots. No. No, not Sheela!
"You," whispered Amy. She had watched enough Zombie-Apocalypse movies with Rory to know what a Patient Zero was. "That's why Aleha didn't want me to hang out with you. She was scared you would contaminate me. And you did!"
"Private Rhesu contaminated you the moment he broke down in the corridor. That's why Sikhu insisted you needed to drink the vaccine as soon as possible. That coughing fit was the release of the first eyrie. And yes, we did a DNA analysis of the virus in you to confirm that."
Amy stared at the calm figure. Sheela was honest and open, she shared everything she knew, as always, and it was soothing in a way. Except she shouldn't know that. Not even Urma and Aleha had known the specific results of the tests and they had been honest, because Urma had complained for hours how this secrecy blocked her work.
"How do you even know all this stuff!"
"I think, I know."
There was something in the Doctors eyes, Amy couldn't quite pinpoint. He corrected his bowtie, then fidgeted with his fingers and carefully leaned forward, taking a cautious step. "You… you not happen to… own a fob watch?"
And he grew completely white when Sheela dropped her head and fumbled something out of her trouser pockets and timidly showed him. Amy sat up straight to see better, and really; a silver fob watch, decorated with those circles and lines Amy came to associate with the script of Gallifrey.
"I apologize. The commander thought it was best for me not to openly wear it, with the current misgiving I've caused."
He starred down at the silver piece of jewellery for a long time before he extended this hand mechanically. "May…I?"
Something was wrong. "Doctor?"
He ignored her and delicately picked it up, as if it wasn't solid metal but something fragile which could crumble to ashes any breath he took. He slowly turned it from one hand to the other, exanimating it warily, then pressed his right eye closed, lent back and pressed the button to open the lid. He stared at the dial, then frowned. "It's a fob watch. Nothing but a plain, old, boring pocket watch."
He sounded even a bit offended about it.
What was he doing now? Amy glanced to Sheela and found her actually offended. The Doctor apparently noticed, and added hastily: "I mean, those are the best. Look at it. A nice, old, fob watch. Beautiful calligraphy. And, yep, the clockwork is absolutely precise, a perfect piece for measuring time. And… Woha!"
He stopped. "I… I didn't know he ever did that."
"Only once," Sheela confirmed, full of pride.
"I see."
And for the first time on this ship, Amy got the feeling that he really did. This was her Doctor, in control of the situation and the smartest person in the room with nobody fooling him.
He extended his hand with the watch. "A pleasure to meet you, Sheela-ama."
She took it and bowed. "The pleasure is all mine, Doctor."
He nodded then clapped his hands. "Now. I need a Talk with Sikhu. The whole research team, actually."
"Shall Captain Corha be present as well?"
"Nope, but she's next. It's time to stop this farce of a power-play and start working. Tell Kelliox, we'll have dinner together this evening."
"I certainly will find room in his schedule," she winked.
"What?"
They totally lost Amy.
The Doctor grinned. "She's the ships councilor and Comander Kelliox's Personal Assistant."
"That's as far from an Intern as possible," Amy spluttered.
"Not from the information you gave me," Sheela defended herself. "And I'm currently suspended from active duty."
"You have a pocket watch, given you by Rassilon himself for extraordinary accomplishments in the social sector of trans-species communication," the Doctor teased.
Sheela was clearly embarrassed, but smiled. "I still had no idea what an Intern is. We don't do Interns. How do Interns even work. Is that a whole own social class or … Hey, don't' walk out on me like that! I have questions! I just answered all yours!"
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