A/N: So while the real world is swept by an infectious disease, I continue to write a story about ... infectious disease? Okay. :P Stay safe.
Chapter 14: Operation Rescue: Part One
The clock struck universal midnight, and while most of Pleaneas had settled down, the time travellers in section red 45, room 67 were getting ready to launch into action.
Their departure had been somewhat delayed by Theo throwing a tantrum, but eventually everyone gathered in the living room with everything they'd arrived with and Theo's outburst had been adequately quelled with a banana.
'Okay, final check. You know what you're doing?' the Doctor asked his daughter, kneeling down to her.
'Yep,' Leah replied confidently, beaming from ear-to-ear.
'Remember, no theatrics or heroics, don't change the plan, don't get distracted, and if at any point you're in danger, you abort and get to a safe place. We'll find you. Got it?'
'You realise that's basically the opposite of what you've raised her on, right?' Jack pointed out.
The Doctor ignored him. 'Got it?' he repeated to Leah.
'Yeah, got it!' Leah confirmed, perpetually excited.
'Theo? Ready?' he asked the boy, who wasn't even looking at them.
'Um, what?' Theo asked absently, looking back at his dad as he chewed messily on the banana.
'Remember what I said?'
'Err … Nah?'
The Doctor sighed. 'Theo. I just told you.'
Theo finished the banana, dropped the skin onto the floor. 'More nana?' he asked hopefully, banana residue smeared around his mouth.
'Theo, you gotta stick with me and do what I say,' Leah informed her little brother.
'Oh. Okay,' he said as his father wiped at his mouth with a tissue.
'Do everything Leah says, then we'll be able to go home,' the Doctor told him.
'Tardy?' Theo wondered, bright-eyed.
'Yep.'
'Yay!' Theo cheered.
'Doc, it's three minutes past,' Jack interrupted, looking at the clock.
The Doctor nodded in reply to him, standing up to hand over his sonic screwdriver to the ex-Time Agent. 'Okay. Good luck. See you in a bit.'
Jack nodded, giving the kids a wave before heading out of the door.
'When do we go?' Leah asked, poised.
'Give it a few seconds,' the Doctor told her.
'So after this we fix up the Tardis and go get Mummy, yeah?' Leah asked.
He paused, regarding the both of them standing there gazing up at him with such belief in their eyes. The six-year-old and the fourteen-month-old. The girl with the face of her mother and the boy with the hyperactivity of his father. The one who was dying and didn't know, and the other who was probably going to either be dead or be an orphan before his second birthday.
Two living breathing products of the cosy life with Rose that he could feel slipping away like water through his fingers. But he knew there was now nothing left to do but fight. If not to save himself - just to save them.
Say yes.
He knelt down to the children and gathered them into a hug that lasted just a tad longer than normal. He kissed them both. Theo squirmed. 'Yes,' he said firmly, standing back up. 'Head out. I'll see you at the docks. Be careful.'
Leah nodded, taking her brother's hand and leading him out of the door. It slid shut behind them, leaving him standing on his own in their room - dark, empty, and silent.
He immediately sagged to lean against the wall, closing his eyes.
It's okay. They'll be fine.
'I know,' the Doctor muttered.
A week ago you couldn't even let them go on a different ship.
'Not like I get a choice either way, I can't be in two places at once and we need that ship.'
Suddenly his phone started ringing. He plucked it out of his pocket and checked. It was Jackie. He didn't have time for that.
He rejected the call and turned off the phone before she could try again. He put it away, and finally left their room for the last time.
After dipping into a supply room to retrieve three oxygen masks, Jack arrived at the designated air vent on floor 50. He quickly checked for any unwanted onlookers before moving to the nearby info terminal, and with the aid of the sonic screwdriver, he deftly hacked into the subframe and input a message for Millennia to pick up.
WE'RE IN ACTION GET READY
WHAT CAN I DO? she replied almost immediately.
HE'S COMING THROUGH THE VENTS NEED ACCESS FOR INTERNAL HATCHES 19 18 9 8 7
There was a brief pause. Jack checked for any bystanders again, before he finally got the reply a few moments later.
ACCESS GRANTED FOR 19 18 9 FOR HIS EXOTRONIC. I CAN'T OPEN THE LAST TWO HATCHES.
THAT'LL DO. STAND BY
Three minutes after he'd left their room, the Doctor reached Jack, who was lingering by an open air vent on floor 50, tapping away at a terminal.
'Managed to use Millennia's access to hack open the first three hatches but you're on your own for the last two,' Jack murmured, handing him two oxygen masks. 'Otherwise, all quiet. See you on the other side. Good luck.'
'You too,' the Doctor said, pocketing the masks and giving a mock salute before entering into the open air vent.
He crawled for a few metres before Jack promptly sealed the vent behind him and the Time Lord's eyes took a moment to adjust to his new world. It was cold, dark, and soulessly metal, with little painful awkward ridges digging into his hands and knees.
With no time to waste, he started on his journey towards his target destination - hatch 19.
Jack sealed the entrance to the vents behind the Doctor with a few precise blasts of the sonic screwdriver on the fixings, quickly checking his surroundings one final time before tapping at the terminal again. He typed a quick message to Millennia.
HE'S COMING. PLEASE DELETE TERMINAL RECORDS AND TAKE US OFF OF SURVEILLANCE
The message box flashed momentarily, before Millennia's final message came through.
DELETING TERMINAL RECORDS AND TAKING THE DOCTOR, YOU, LEAH, AND THEO OFF OF PANACEA'S SURVEILLANCE. THANK YOU, JACK. I WILL SEE YOU SOON.
Jack switched off the terminal. The clock had started ticking. They had thirty minutes until Panacea's automated security system would pick up and investigate their disappearance. So far, so good.
He headed back to the lift to start the next stage of the Doctor's plan.
The lift opened at the departures floor, and Leah and Theo stepped out of the lift into an empty corridor. Leah quickly buzzed through the plan again in her head, squared up her shoulders, and took hold of her little brother's hand.
'Don't let go of my hand, mmkay?' Leah instructed him.
'Okay,' Theo said.
Leah led them forward, heading down the vacant passageway towards the departure lounge. Someone appeared at the other end of the corridor - an alien with a potent limp and a walking stick. Even from a distance she could see most of his skin was raked and gouged with burn scars. He looked a little bit scary.
Theo stopped dead, frozen like a deer in headlights. 'Leah,' he muttered.
'C'mon,' Leah prompted, pulling his arm slightly.
'But Leah …'
'What?'
'Look,' Theo said, pointing.
Leah followed his finger to the alien man heading directly towards them. She was about to protest, but by the look on Theo's face and the physical state of the advancing man, Leah worked out very rapidly who it was.
The man who had abducted her brother and nearly killed her daddy.
Bac'ou Bar'zelli.
She tried to move, but it was already too late.
He saw them.
It had been becoming increasingly darker and colder in the Doctor's world as he descended at quite a rate into the very bowels of Panacea's system. As he progressed the air was getting thinner too as the life support steadily disappeared. He ended up putting on his oxygen mask slightly earlier than planned, but that was okay - he'd allowed for it.
He reached his first hatch - a barred metal gate in the middle of the tunnel, blocking access to the next area. There was a scanner and keypad to the left. He raised his exotronic, and with only slight trepidation, placed his palm on the reader.
It scanned, beeped approvingly, and the hatch rolled open. Grinning, he crawled into the next area.
'Soran!' Bac'ou called in a hoarse voice wide-eyed.
Theo instinctively looked to his big sister who boldly stepped in front of him.
'What do you want?' she asked.
Bac'ou completely ignored her, solely focused on Theo. 'Soran. c'mere. Come to me.'
Theo looked at his big sister again, whose fists were now clenched. 'I said, what do you want!?' she demanded to know.
Bac'ou began to advance, his eyes fixed on the blond boy.
Leah puffed herself up, as though confronting a bear. 'Get back!' she screamed.
Bac'ou stopped, and finally looked at her. 'Oh, you're the other one. Leah, or something like that?'
Leah hesitated, a little confused by that. 'How do you know my name?'
'Your mum. We're friends. I know where she is. D'you wanna see her again? I know she wants to see you two.'
'No,' Leah said firmly.
'She's missing you. Keep saying just how much your dad is lying to you.'
'No, he's not.'
'Yes, he is.'
'It's all really simple, actually,' Leah spat out, her eyes narrowed. 'She's infected with a disease and we've gotta find the cure.'
Bac'ou gazed for a moment at her, and suddenly laughed. That was the last thing Leah had been expecting.
'Oh, that's a hell of a story,' Bac'ou said, still smiling. 'So what exactly has he told you?'
'She's infected with a sentient brain disease and it's trying to kill us, and you're part of all the bad things so just go away and leave my brother alone.'
Bac'ou laughed again. 'A sentient disease? Whoever heard of a sentient disease? C'mon. I know you're a smart one. Work it out. He's a chronic liar.'
'You're not gonna trick me and we don't wanna see her so give it up,' Leah said firmly.
Bac'ou rolled his eyes. 'So you're going to cure her from this weird brain disease he's made up and that'll make everything better, is that the plan?'
'I'm not telling you anything.'
He smirked. 'You really believe him, don't you?'
'Yeah,' Leah replied firmly.
'Then there's no reasoning with you, is there? Just a stupid little girl believing in fairy tales about cures on worlds you'll die reaching in split space.'
Leah's eyes narrowed. '... I never told you anything about split space.'
Bac'ou paused, seemed to think about that, and then shrugged as if a nonchalant decision had been made. 'Let me start again. Come with me, because I'm the only chance you have left to live.'
The vent the Doctor was crawling through was steadily becoming thinner and thinner as he progressed, to the point he was almost getting claustrophobic.
His shoulders were squeezed in and even with the mask giving him direct oxygen he was still struggling slightly to breathe, so when it finally opened out he had to take a few moments just to steady himself, taking some deep breaths.
Feelings of Leah panicking were washing through the bond, but the Doctor, despite his mild paternal panic, knew at this point he could do absolutely nothing to help her. He had to trust her. There was no way of contacting her. She had her job, and he had to believe she'd finish it.
Just as he was about to move, suddenly the tunnel seemed to vibrate underneath him. Slightly alarmed, he looked up the metal tunnel, but saw nothing. At least, until he saw the entire tunnel flash white, and by his well-trained instinct he knew something was headed towards him.
He had to move. He scrambled forward with his mind rushing. What had he missed? What hadn't they accounted for?
He settled on the answer very fast.
Cleaning. The automatic cleaning of the vaults was scheduled and there really was only one method a high tech institution was going to use. Cleaning using a pulse of highly-charged electricity, which was now headed straight towards him.
'We're getting the cure,' Leah told Bac'ou, filled with conviction.
Bac'ou shrugged. 'Sorry, but you're going to die. Your mum is going to kill you.'
'Mummy wouldn't let me die,' Leah insisted.
He spread a smile. 'Oh, you're so cute. you think there's even an ounce of your mum left in there? That thing inside her is pure evil. It doesn't care about you, and it doesn't care about your brother either. It wants the Doctor and it's willing to rip through your entire family to get to him. You're going to die.'
Leah's insides chilled at his words. 'But … why would you wanna save us?'
'Me? I just want Soran back. Me and the disease made a deal. I'd help her catch your father if she gave me Soran. You're cannon fodder, but I'll take you too if you want to stand a chance of living. Might even be able to stop you being used as a pawns in this insane divorce your parents are going through.'
'You could help us instead,' Leah offered. 'Our daddy will stop it.'
He smiled again, sharing his head in disbelief. 'You have so much faith in him. That's adorable.'
'He's gonna save everyone.'
'Is he now? This thing in your mum is ridiculously powerful. It blew up my base and burnt me alive without even blinking. I've just spent three months in therapy having my entire face reconstructed because of what it did.'
Leah gazed at Bac'ou's scarred face. 'But if it did that why would you help it?'
'Because I prefer to be on the side of the winner, and this disease is too powerful, too clever, and too angry to lose. I can't stop it, you can't stop it - no one can. So make the smart choice, girl. You and your brother come with me, because the rest of the universe - including everyone you love - is going to die.'
The sound of the electrical cleaning screeching through the system was steadily becoming louder and louder as the Doctor scrambled through the narrow metal tunnels.
It was moving at roughly five times the speed he was, and he still had two hatches left to go. He reached the first, and hastily input the security code.
It flashed red, and a message appeared on the screen:
ERROR 48: CANNOT OPEN WHILE CLEANING IS IN PROGRESS
Uh oh.
He rammed in the code again, this time with far more urgency, as if hoping the harder he hit it the more likely it was to spontaneously burst open.
ERROR 48: CANNOT OPEN WHILE CLEANING IS IN PROGRESS
The tunnel was beginning to light up as the electric progressed towards him. So he wrapped the fingers of his exotronic under the hatch, and pulled.
The exotronic instantly made a high-pitched screaming noise, clearly struggling as the hatch moved, inch by inch upwards. He managed to get it just high enough for him to slip under.
The tunnel was getting hotter and lighter as he jumped back to a crawling position and scrambled forward to the last hatch.
