Infected

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"McDonnell?" A voice called over the intercom. "It's Ashton."

Her eyes widened and she ran over to the intercom panel. "Where are you?" she asked. "Is Korwin with you?"

"Get up to the med centre now!" he said seriously. McDonnell turned and sprinted from the room, a sacred look in her eyes. The Doctor grabbed Rose and they followed after her.

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'Impactin34.31.'

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As they got closer to the med centre, they heard a man crying out in agony. McDonnell put on a burst of speed and rushed into the room.

"Korwin!" she cried. "What's happened? Is he okay?"

As they stood at the foot of the bed they saw that the man on the table was not okay. He was thrashing about, his body wracked with tremors. He was groaning and screaming. Beside the Doctor, Rose gasped and took a step back, as if her proximity to the man was causing her pain.

"Oh god!" he shrieked. "Help me! It's burning me!" The Doctor looked cautiously at Rose out of the corner of his eye. He was very aware of her movements and how she shielded away from the man. And what he had just said, 'it's burning me', Rose had said something like that too. What if, what ever was happening to him was happening to Rose too? What if, soon, Rose would be lying on the ground screaming in agony too? The thought made him shiver.

"How long has he been like this?" he asked, sounding slightly panicked.

"Ashton just bought him in," said the woman who must be their medic. She was struggling to keep the thrashing man on the table. He got out the sonic-screwdriver and scanned Korwin as he gave another shriek of pain.

"What are you doing?" McDonnell cried.

"Don't get too close," he warned. She, of course, ignored him and pushed Ashton out of her way so she could be at the head of the bed.

"Don't be stupid. He's my husband!" she cried.

"And he's just sabotaged our ship!" Ashton told her.

"What?" she cried aghast, turning to face him.

"He went mad. He set the ship to Secure Closure, then he set the heat pulse to melt the controls."

"No way! He wouldn't do that!" she said angrily, struggling to keep her husband down.

"I saw it happen, Captain."

"Korwin?" the Doctor cut them off, his scan complete. "Korwin, open your eyes for me a second."

"I can't!" he cried in pain.

"Yeah, course you can. Go on."

"Don't make me look at you! Please!" Korwin begged. He screamed again. His eyes were screwed up tight, but he opened them ever so slightly for a millisecond. Only Rose and Ashton saw the bright gold light burning through them.

"Alright, alright, alight. Just relax," the Doctor soothed. He moved down the end of the bed and grabbed some sort of syringe gun. "Sedative?" he asked the medic.

"Yes," she replied. Nodding, he pressed it to Korwin's neck, and with a final cry, he fell limp. Everyone relaxed, seemingly still after having to struggle with him for so long. The Doctor placed the sedative on the tray and looked warily at Rose; she was staring blankly at Korwin, tears threatening to spill over. Her arms were wrapped around herself protectively, like and insecure child, her head was moving back and forth in a horrified shake. He had never seen her so venerable. The sight made him go weak, he wanted to go over and hold her. But, unfortunately, there were more pressing matters at hand… At least, that's what he tried to convince himself. Because in his mind, nothing was more important than Rose.

"What's wrong with him?" McDonnell asked him, making him look away from Rose. He perched himself on the edge of the bed.

"Rising body temperature, unusual energy readings…" looking up he saw a stasis chamber behind the bed. "Stasis chamber. I do love a good stasis chamber. Keep him sedated in there. Regulate the body temperature," he ordered. The medic looked at him questioningly, but still did what he said. Watching her, his throat contracted as his over active imagination saw her doing that to an unconscious Rose. He shook his head to clear the unwanted thoughts away, and moved closer to the woman. "And just for fun, run a bio-scan, a tissue profile and, a metabolic detail."

"Just doing them now," she told him.

"Ooh! You're good," he said happily. "Anyone else presenting these symptoms?" It took all he had not to turn around and look at Rose.

"Not so far," she replied.

"Well, that's something."

"Would someone tell me what is the matter with him?" McDonnell cried desperately.

"Some sort of infection," he told her. "We'll know more after the test results. Now, Allons-y! Back downstairs, eh? See about those engines. Go." He waved them off. Ashton walked out the door, but McDonnell stood there, refusing to leave her husbands side. "Hey!" he called to her. She looked at him and his voice became gentler. "Go." Reluctantly she left and headed out the door. He turned back to the medic. "Call us if there's any news." Then he gently unfolded Rose's arms away from her body, took her hand and led her from the room. Quickly he popped his head back. "Any questions?"

"Yeah," she almost scoffed. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor." He grinned down at Rose, happy to see a small smile on her face, and they ran to catch up with the others.

?...DW…?

'Heatshieldsfailingat%25,' the computer informed them. 'Impactin32.50.'

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They had been looking at the engines for a while now, with no such luck. And they didn't know how much closer to the front of the ship Martha and Riley were. He could only just concentrate. His mind kept drifting back to Rose - who was still unusually quiet, though much happier and less haunted - and worried if she had the same symptoms as Korwin. He had to find out the results of those tests immediately.

"What's your medic's name?" he asked McDonnell.

"Abi Learner."

He strode over to the intercom and spoke into it. "Abi, how's Korwin doing? Any results form the bio-scan?"

"He's under heavy sedation," her somewhat flustered response came over the radio. "I'm just trying to make sense of this data. Give me a couple of minutes and I'll let you know."

"Alright," he said. With that sorted he switched channels so he was contacting anyone in the corridors. "Martha? Riley? How're you doing?" he asked urgently.

"Area twenty-nine, at door twenty-eight," came her response.

"You've got to move faster," he told her, putting on his specs so he could get a better look at the screen in front of him.

"We're dong our best!" Martha said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Find the next number in the sequence," he heard Riley say. "313, 331, 367… What?"

"You said the crew knew all the answers," Martha said to him.

"The crew's changed since we set the questions."

"You're joking."

"379!" he interrupted them.

"What?" Martha cried.

"It's a sequence of happy primes. 379."

"Happy what?"

"Just enter it!" he cried. They really didn't have time for this.

"Are you sure?" Riley asked him. "We only get one chance."

The Doctor held back a groan of irritation. They really didn't have time for this. He began speaking fast, trying to get it all out in less than a second. "Any number which reduces to one when you take the sum of the square of its digits and you continue iterating until it yields one, is a happy prime number. Any number that doesn't isn't. A happy prime is a number which is both happy and prime. Now type it in!" He looked over at Rose who was standing there awkwardly, looking exhausted and hot, a small smile on her face as she watched him. "I dunno, talk about dumbing down! Don't they teach recreational mathematics anymore?" At this she let out the first genuine laugh he'd heard from her since last night.

"We're through!" Martha called down the intercom to him.

"Keep moving, as fast as you can," he told her. Then his voice became softer. "And, Martha, be careful. There may be something else on board this ship." He saw Rose's face fall and she shuddered involuntarily.

"Any time you wanna unnerve me, feel free!"

"Will do, thanks," he said happily. He switched off the intercom and headed back to the others. He gave Rose a reassuring smile. Internally he was panicking and worried about her. He wanted to stay glued to her side, make sure she was okay and pay her every second of attention he had. But she was already looking so scared; he didn't want to panic her further. Because if he was panicking, she would know that it couldn't be good.

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'Impactin30.50.'

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The Doctor looked down at the mangled equipment in his hands. "We need a backup in case they don't reach the auxiliary engines on time," he said more to himself than anyone. "Come on! Think! Resources, what have we got?" he said the last part to the crew, but before anyone could reply, Martha spoke over the intercom again.

"Doctor?"

"What is it now?" he asked. He sounded frustrated and annoyed. He felt a little guilty for talking to her that way, but he couldn't help it and didn't have time to worry about it either.

"Who had the most number ones? Elvis or the Beatles - that's pre-download."

"Elvis," he said confidently. But then a doubt formed in his mind. "No! The Beatles! No, wait! Um… Um…" he stared slapping the back of his head, trying to remember. "Ugh! What was that remix? Um… I don't know, I'm a bit busy!"

"Fine. I'll ask someone else!" she sounded put out.

"It's Elvis," Rose suddenly piped up. Her voice held its usual confidence. "Trust me. Mum used to love the both of them. She knew nearly every single fact about them. It's Elvis."

"Right," the Doctor grinned. "Can't argue with Jackie Tyler. Elvis it is."

"Thanks, go it!" Martha told them.

He grinned at Rose; she just stared back at him incredulously. "What?" he asked.

"'Can't argue with Jackie Tyler'?" she said disbelievingly. "That's all you ever did with her!"

"Yes, well, your mother scares me more than an army of Daleks," he said nervously. "If someone asked me if I would like to be slapped by Jackie or shot by a Dalek… I would rather face the Dalek. Your mother is terrifying!"

Rose grinned so widely that even her tongue made an appearance. She laughed loudly and he was almost relieved at the sound. Then her smile became a sad one, her face soft. She slipped her hand into his.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"For what?"

"For speaking about her in present tense. I needed that." Suddenly she winced in pain and her hand yanked out of his to hold her head.

"Rose?" he said in concern.

"I'm fine, just a headache." She wasn't going to mention the fact that it felt like her head was on fire. Nor that what ever had tried to invade her mind earlier was still screaming in her head. Or even that what ever it was, was still trying to get in. She could feel it pushing at her subconscious, feeding her its pain. What ever it was, it was very strong. But there was something holding it back. Another presence in her mind. It was protecting her mind and keeping her safe, pushing the other consciousness back and holding off the pain. But every now and then, a little bit of the fire would slip through. She could feel her energy slowly draining away.

"Okay," the Doctor said to her quietly. He didn't truly believe that she was as fine as she said she was. He knew it was something more than a headache. But unfortunately, now wasn't the time to deal with it. He would have to wait till they were back in the TARDIS to make sure she was okay, with proper tests and everything. "Now, where was I?" he said turning back to the crew. "Here comes the sun," he grinned. Oh, no, that wasn't right. That was an oddly appropriate title to a Beatles song… "No, resources. So, the power's still working, the generator's going. If we can harness that… Ah!

"Use the generator to jumpstart the ship," McDonnell clicked on to what he was saying.

"Exactly! At the very least it'll buy us some more time.

"That… is brilliant." Rose rolled her eyes. She could practically see the Doctor's ego growing.

"I know," he said as if it weren't already obvious, using his squeaky voice. "See? Tiny glimmer of hope!" Everyone smiled at each other.

"If it works," Scannell said, always the pessimist.

"Oh, believe me," McDonnell smiled at him, her voice firm. "You're going to make it work."

Dejectedly, Scannell stalked off to get it sorted. The others smiled at McDonnell.

"That told him!" the Doctor grinned.

?...DW…?

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'Impactin28.50.'

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As time moved on, they found that they weren't getting as far as he had hoped. A lot of damage had been done. And there was only so much they could do at this moment. Not to mention at every few seconds he would look up to check on Rose.

She was still unusually quiet, but she seemed a little more her usual self. She was up beside him, smiling like she always was. But the smile didn't reach her haunted eyes. He knew there was something still raging inside her mind and he had the feeling that she was only trying to act normal for his benefit. He was constantly afraid that she might end up like Korwin. And he didn't know if he would be able to handle seeing her like that.

He thought about what the Cyberman had said to him back in Canary Warf; that emotions destroy. It scared him that the thought of losing one small pink and yellow human could destroy him so completely. She was still a child to him… even in her world, but she had blossomed into the most incredible woman he had ever met. Not one of his previous companions could quite compare. And he had had some brilliant companions.

He had lost companions before… Adric had willingly given up his single life to save everyone… Even just taking people back filled him with guilt. Knowing that he had irrevocably changed their lives... and not always for the best.

He had damaged Rose's life so completely. She had no one left back on Earth. She only had the TARDIS and him… and because she loved them both, she would never leave them for anything other than death. And he knew that she would willingly give her life to save his - despite the fact that he could regenerate. She had already proven she would do that. The thought of this made one of his hearts rise into his throat and the other drop into his stomach.

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"Doctor," Abi's voice came over the intercom, breaking him out of his morbid reverie. "Theses readings are starting to scare me."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, Korwin's body's changing. His whole biological makeup… It - it's impossible." There was silence for a long time. Everyone listened intently for what she was going to say. But instead when she finally spoke it was to the whole ship. "This is med centre," her voice shook. "Urgent assistance requested. Urgent assistance!"

The Doctor was only frozen for a second before he turned and sprinted for the med centre.

"Stay here and keep working!" he shouted back at the crew. He heard light footsteps following him and felt slightly relieved and slightly scared that Rose was coming with him. But behind her he heard some heaver footfalls and saw McDonnell following too… Okay, she could come; it was her husband after all.

"Urgent assistance!" Abi's voice rung through the halls again. There was a pause and her voice became quieter. She wasn't talking to them anymore. "What's happening to you?" They could hardly hear her.

Then a deep creepy voice that didnot sound human, rasped over the intercom. "Burn with me," it hissed. "Burn with me."

"Captain?" a voice called from behind them. They all stopped to find Scannell running around the corner.

"I told you to stay in engineering," the Doctor told him.

"I only take orders from one person round here," he snapped moving past them.

The Doctor looked shocked. "Oh, is he always this cheery?" he asked in bewilderment before following on.

"Burn with me," the voice said again as they got closer to the med centre.

"K-Korwin, you're sick," they heard Abi whimper.

"Burn. With. Me!"

The Doctor heard a squeal ahead of him and he froze as he rounded the corner to join the other three. Rose was doubled over, holding her head again. Scannell was holding onto her shoulders, a look of concern and fear on his face. Quickly he ran forward and took his place.

"Rose?" he said urgently.

"No!" she suddenly screamed. "Don't!" There was no time to worry about what she was talking about as a loud scream burst from the intercom. Instantly everyone - including Rose, who was still in a lot of pain - ran for the med centre.

"Doctor, what were those screams?" Martha's voice came not long after the horrible scream had subsided.

"Concentrate on those doors! You've gotta keep moving forward!" he shouted as they ran.

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Then, as a horrid, unwanted reminder of everything else bad that was happening, the mechanical voice of the computer rang out. 'Impactin27.06.'