Chapter 122: Return

Arthur placed the body on the slab and stepped back. "Where did Your Majesty find him?" The Doctor asked.

"Sinking off Iceland. I couldn't leave him there." Arthur replied.

The Doctor nodded. "Yes, the Fishermen would not have reacted well to him."

Arthur grunted, the Fishermen were his problem, they shouldn't be Hal's. He looked at his friend's body and wondered what had happened. His friend was dead, he knew that, but he wanted to know how he had died. He blinked as the Doctor brought forth a machine and started using it to scan various parts of Hal's body. When he got to Hal's chest he frowned. "What is it?" Arthur asked.

"There seems to be an alien substance within his lungs and his heart." The Doctor said.

"Alien substance?" Arthur asked, his mind whirring. He had a suspicion but he wanted to hold fire before making a decision.

"Yes, it appears that there are traces of DNA within your friend's system. The alien DNA was what caused your friend to suffer a massive heart attack which left him dead." The Doctor answered.

"Do you know what sort of DNA?" Arthur asked.

The Doctor said nothing for a moment, instead using the machine to do a fully body scan, he looked over the results, Arthur could vaguely see what looked like numbers and other such things on the machine before they disappeared. The Doctor then sighed. "Martian DNA, Sire."

"Martian?" Arthur asked, his worst fears confirmed. "You're sure."

"Absolutely, Sire. The Martian DNA took route and corrupted his system." The Doctor replied.

"Very well, thank you." Arthur bent down and picked Hal up, he turned and walked out of the room. He continued walking until he got to the doors that led back to the water. As he went to open the doors, his communicator blinked. He pressed it and Mera's face appeared.

"Did you get an answer?" She asked.

Arthur nodded. "Yes, it was Martian DNA that killed Hal."

Mera frowned. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to need to take this to the surface." Arthur said, he hadn't wanted to get involved with the surface after that business with Steppenwolf, but if he had to, he had to.

"Are you sure?" Mera asked.

"Yes." Arthur replied. "I won't be long." Mera nodded and the screen blinked out, Arthur opened the doors and then with Hal in his arms, he set off for the surface.