Negotiation

"Yeah, alright," Donna didn't want to argue about silly names, "but whatever you wanna call them, Doctor, that's still Sadie there and we know what she's about."

Her wings folded back, the ship's captain sat on her haunches, her breath steadying. The Illinate-Krillitane was calming down at last.

Donna stood up and went over to Sadie's side.
"Donna!" The Doctor gasped. "Be careful, the Krillitane are known cannibals!"
Donna smiled gently at Sadie and knelt down on the debris-filled floor. Blue Cyberman coolant was everywhere but Donna was more worried about Sadie and her fragile mental state. "You alright, Sadie?" Donna spoke softly, "thanks for saving me. If you hadn't stopped him he would've killed me."
Sadie was still breathing heavily and almost shaking with her recent outburst. Still managing to respond to Donna, Sadie looked into her eyes, holding out her long sharp-clawed hands in concern for her.
Donna felt her heart aching, "it's alright, Sadie. I'm alright, you're alright, the Doctor, we're alright. It's okay, yeah?"
Sadie drew her hands back and crossed them over her heart. Then she looked at her claws, and turned her head left and right to see her wings. She growled.
"No, Sadie, it's fine, really." Donna felt a flutter of panic registering the surge of anger in Sadie's aura, "every creature in the whole universe has its own way to be!"

In a fierce motion, Sadie jumped across the room and scrabbled to the command console. The view screen shifted from security cameras to the starboard engine's camera view enhanced with the sensor adjustments Donna had made earlier in the Astrometrics lab.
The Doctor had moved around to join Donna and was observing Sadie at the controls as well. "She's targeting the Cybership, Donna."
Donna's hearts jolted. "It's normal, Sadie! Really! There's nothing wrong with you, they didn't make you this way they just ... made you want to survive! We all do it; it just makes you human! Just because you were born to be better at it than some others doesn't make it wrong. The trick is not to overreact about it. Wanting to survive is just human!"

Much to Donna's relief Sadie sat back from the console with a sigh and rubbed her face. Donna watched in sheer amazement as Sadie started changing back to humanoid form. Then she felt a creepy sensation and turned to see the Doctor staring, not at Sadie's transformation but at Donna in absolute bewilderment. She bit her tongue from verbalising her response. 'What's your problem?' She silently asked him.
'It isn't every day you hear someone say "don't blow up the Cybermen".'
'Yeah but she doesn't need to do it!' Donna glared back at him. 'This has got nothing to do with these people.'
"It doesn't really matter." The Doctor suddenly vocalised, shrugging off the debate. "The Cybermen will be dead from the plague soon enough. Judging by the ship design they wouldn't have mining equipment so it's not as though they can cure themselves."

Sadie was now back to human shape and she had a furrowed brow as she sat at her station. Donna noticed her change the settings on the console like Matthew had done earlier and came over to find out what Sadie was thinking up now. With a gasp, Donna noticed some of the symbols on the panel were completely different. Familiarly different.

"Gallifreyan. Some of that lot's Gallifreyan." Donna marvelled. If before she'd thought Matthew was clever that was nothing about how clever Sadie must be.
The view screen shifted picture and another Cyberman, identical to the last lot of Cybermen, loomed into oversized view making Donna jump.
"Cyber humanoids." Sadie's voice had returned a bit crisper and lively, "Deep down we're all human." She repeated Donna's philosophising like it were her own to the Cybership. "You carry the space plague. We as Illinates are peacetime merchants. If you are willing to broker peace, we are willing to broker a trade for the quantity of Parrinium you require. What is your response, please?"

Donna felt sickly. If the Cybermen agreed, Donna realised now, she may well have just completely stuffed the future of the whole universe with a Cybermen-Krillitane alliance.
'No, Donna, you were right the first time round. They're peaceful. It's going to be fine.'
Donna looked over at the Doctor. How many of her thoughts was he hearing? Probably just the loud ones. She probably shouldn't think so loud. She glanced nervously over at him. He had a cheeky grin on his face telling her he'd heard that thought as well.

"Our analysis of your ship shows your civilian grade weapons are no match for ours." The ship's Cybercontroller intoned over the communication channel before Donna could think anything else. "Our boarding party failed but our ship's external weapons will succeed."
"They're charging weapons!" The Doctor exclaimed in hyped up exasperation. "This was what I was trying to avoid! Oh, now what? Think!"
"Do not fire your weapons, cyber humanoids." Sadie said calmly, "we can surely come to some other arrangement with you. We are merchants. We have no interest in fighting."
"This you say and yet every Cyberman sent to your ship has been deleted."
"Every living thing wants to survive. You challenged us to survive and we held out against your attack. It is a human response."
"We will survive over your destruction." The Cyberman stated on the screen. "Fire the missiles."

There was the sound of explosions over the communication link, a great ball of flame enveloped the picture and then the image cut out.

The shockwave of the nearby exploding ship sent Donna tumbling to the floor.