Chapter 12
Antimatter Part Duex
A man in a medical uniform was there to help pull the Doctor out of the air and onto a diagnostic bed. He plugged in the bed and handed a monitor over to Vishinsky who quickly placed it against the Doctor's head. He began to read what the readings were and let out a low curse. It wasn't looking good for the man.
"Electro-function is almost non-existent," Vishinsky informed the two women.
"But he's still alive," Sarah defended.
"Raise the simulation," John ordered in a no-nonsense tone.
"Raise it the intensity by twelve degrees," Vishinsky agreed.
"But that's way over the safety margins!" The man exclaimed.
"Do it!" Vishinsky ordered.
The man pressed a button and the Doctor twitched. John slipped her hand into his and she felt his fingers slowly flex around hers. She felt some relief at that, and her shoulders slumped as her body relaxed. She slipped from the Armageddon mindset and gave his hand a gentle squeeze before gently pulling away.
"He's moving and responding to touch," She stated, "Give him a couple minutes and he'll come around."
"Stand by for takeoff," Salamar's voice came through the overhead speakers, "Vishinsky to the command area."
"Stay with him," Vishinsky told the two women.
"Thank you, Vishinsky," John said in a soft smile, "For helping us."
He gave a curt nod at that before leaving the sickbay. Sarah had found a chair to sit in and let out a soft breath. Both women had been worried about the Doctor. John had been right he had gone and done something that she had hated. She had done something he hated, though she hadn't meant to, so she guessed they were even. She heard a low rumbling and looked towards the hallway that led to the command area. The engines had just started up and she narrowed her eyes in slight thought. She jumped when she saw movement from the corner of her eyes.
The Doctor had woke up and started to take off the monitor.
"What's the noise?" He asked in a groggy tone, John walked up to him with a slight frown.
"We're taking off," Sarah replied as the two helped him sit up.
"What?" He asked in surprise, "But the canisters, I promise."
"It's all right, they've been dumped," Sarah informed him, "Your promise as a Time Lord? Well, what happened?"
"It's difficult to explain," He muttered.
"What, you entered another universe and you communicated," John stated with a slightly amused expression on her face before it quickly fell as the lights flickered and an alarm went off, "Seems like your in trouble once again."
"Come on!" The Doctor told the two as he jumped out of the diagnostic bed and stumbled a little.
He quickly rushed through the sickbay door and the two girls ran after him. They moved through the ship and the lights flickered once again. The alarm was Mauve, the universal color for danger, and lit up the room every time the lights flickered. The Doctor entered the command area and all eyes turned to him.
"All the canisters were removed," Salamar said as he looked back towards Vishinsky.
"Except for this," The Doctor stated as he held up his tin, it was slightly dented from when John helped him out of the pool.
"What's that?" Salamar questioned.
"Antimatter," The Doctor replied, "How else do you think I survived that pool?"
"Is there enough there to hold us back?" Salamar questioned.
"Yes." He answered.
"You idiot, Morelli get that tin to the jettison hatch fast!" Salamar ordered and a slightly pudgy man walked forward and plucked the tin from the Doctor's hand before running off.
After a while, the ship began to go higher, but it wasn't as fast as it could be. John shared a look with the Doctor, and he gave her a slight nod. She slipped out of the room and began to search for some form of antimatter. It still put out a frequency that she could feel, it was just difficult to pinpoint it in the small form. If there were some in the ship it had to be in a canister, something that would block the frequencies.
She just hoped that she wouldn't be forced off the ship again by the Antimatter. She moved down a hallway and stopped when she felt something pass her. It was like the energy creature, but darker. Dangerous. She slipped her wand out of her pocket and readied herself to attack. She blinked when it ran away from her, it was like she scared it.
Could it be possible that the Doctor knew that it feared her? Knowing that man he most likely did. Her mind began to race as she attempted to figure out why. Why should it fear her? It wasn't like she could harm it. Her eyes widened as a sudden thought came to her. No, she could harm it, and she could easily decimate it if she wished to. Magic was white energy, but able to be corrupted. She felt for her magical core and felt it respond in kind by making the tip of her wand light up with gold light. She winced as the frequency let out a shrill sound. She almost covered her ears as she heard it.
It was screaming in fear.
She felt her body tense at that realization and lowered her wand. She took a step forward before taking one back. She stared at the ground with a slight frown on her face before putting her wand away. She continued walking through the hallways with a contemplative look on her face. She shook it off before standing up straight and heading to the left. She came across the Tardis and raised her brows.
"Mind letting me in, Sexy?" She asked the Tardis and the door swung open for her, "Thank you kindly."
She smiled as she walked into the innards and closed the door behind her. The Tardis was playing some heavy metal and she simply shrugged. It was interesting how much music a ship listened to. She heard the doors lock behind her and she blinked in confusion. She headed to her room to grab something. She paused as she walked in, Chariot was asleep on her perch and she needed to be quiet.
She smiled at the owl as she headed towards a chair that was near her briefcase. She had a jacket resting on the back of it, a small bombers jacket from the 1920s. She pulled it on and sighed in slight relief, her arms had gotten cold from the air in the spaceship. She placed her hands into the pockets and looked around for a few minutes. She was just enjoying the light feeling she got when she was in the Tardis, it was something that reminded her of being around the Doctor or at Hogwarts. That last one made her feel sad. Too many sad memories were attached to her school.
She noticed that some fabric was sitting in a corner and she walked up to it. She felt it and made an impressed face. It was heavy wool and black. Well, she was going to have to make some new clothes. She smiled at that before heading out of her room and into the main console room. The door unlocked for her and she stepped out. She narrowed her eyes as the sounds of alarms hit her.
"Ah, knowing him he's in danger," She muttered as she got her wand out and did a point me spell, "Either that or he's causing chaos, hard to tell with that man."
She followed it and went into the sickbay, it was empty, but two metal pods seemed to be moving away from a small door. She hurried once she saw a familiar head of brown curly hair in one of the pods. She ran towards the pods and investigated them. The Doctor looked up at her and gave her a slight groggy grin as she made a face at him.
"How'd you get in trouble again?" She asked him before noticing who was in the second pod, "How'd you both get in trouble."
"I felt the thing from the planet," Sarah stated as John moved from the Doctor's pod to her's and helped the smaller woman out, "It's been killing the crew, I had the same feeling as before when the last attack happened."
"Who were you with?" John asked her as she turned to help the Doctor.
"Professor Sorenson," Sarah answered as she straightened her clothes.
"Sorenson, of course!" The Doctor exclaimed, "The sole survivor of the expedition."
"That would make him Antiman," Sarah added.
"Antiman?" John quietly mumbled to herself.
"Yes," The Doctor answered, "He's been infected with antimatter, his brain cells are being destroyed and he'll soon descend to the level of a brute."
"Anything that we can do?" John asked him.
"Sarah," The Doctor stated.
"Yes?" Sarah asked.
"Get to the command deck," The Doctor ordered her, "Tell them to shut down all the hatches, our only chance is to keep it isolated."
"Right, but what are you going to do?" Sarah asked him, but he didn't answer so she sent him a look, "Doctor."
"Do as I say," He told her in a stern, yet not unkind, way.
Sarah rushed off and the Doctor looked to John. He took note of the coat and realized that she had stumbled across the Tardis and his ship had let her in. He had yet to give her a key, something that she'd need if she were to visit London and see this universe's Sherlock. He couldn't keep her away from her cousin, even if it was a different version of him. He still needed to meet the cousin, he shook those thoughts from his head and focused on what he needed to.
"We need to see if Sorenson has anymore Antimatter," He told her.
He grasped onto her hand and they headed through the spaceship. She was easily able to keep up with him as he took sharp turns. He came to a stop outside of the door to Sorenson's quarters and she paused at his side. He released her hand and took out his sonic screwdriver. He pressed it against the lock and it slowly slid open. He cautiously entered the room and looked around.
There wasn't anyone in the room and he headed straight to the desk where a container was sitting. He opened it and narrowed his eyes in thought as he put the lid back on. The antimatter that had been inside earlier was still there. John had entered the room and was looking around with a curious expression on her face. She hadn't really been in many spaceships, well, she hadn't been in the living quarters before.
"Not a lot of room in here," She quietly commented.
"This isn't the time, love," The Doctor informed her, and she blinked at him in confusion as he continued to look around.
It took her a few seconds to figure out what he meant by that. She turned a bright red at that and shot him a look. She was about to say something when he picked up a container from the floor and sniffed it. He moved back to the container and opened it. He looked around for something and picked up a spoon.
John moved back when he put it inside the canister and the antimatter crystals were brought out. Her pulse began to quicken as her hearts started to rapidly beat in her chest there was a funny ringing in her ears that began to cause her head to pound. The crystals felt wrong, worse than usual. He poured some of the liquid from the canister on it. Once the red liquid dropped onto it, they glowed brightly until they turned a dull brown. He was resealing the canister when a sudden thump got his attention.
John was on the floor curled up in a ball, her hands covering her ears and eyes tightly shut. Sorenson was standing in the doorway and the Doctor slowly moved towards his lover. He was clutching onto the container and was ready to use it as a weapon. Sorenson tilted his head at the Doctor. The Doctor frowned in response.
"Keep away," The Doctor warned Sorenson.
"I require an explanation," Sorenson said as he winced when he began to feel some pain in his chest.
"You're ill, Professor Sorenson," The Doctor informed the man as John opened her eyes to glare at the dirty blonde.
"What do you mean, ill?" Sorenson questioned as he stayed in his place.
"You think you've discovered an oral vaccine to protect you against antiquark penetration, but you're wrong," The Doctor stated as John stopped moving and remained still.
"It worked," Sorenson defended as the Doctor tensed in both concern and slight agitation.
"For a time, but it set up a cycle of chemical change," The Doctor informed the man, one of his hands found its way into long strands of dark hair, "There's no way back, Sorenson, you've reached the point where your tissues are so monstrously hybridized that the next metabolic change could be the final one."
"No," Sorenson breathed out.
"There isn't much time," The Doctor continued a small hand finding his scarf and gripping it.
"No!" Sorenson exclaimed.
"You and I are scientists, Professor," The Doctor said in an understanding tone, "We buy our privilege to experiment at the cost of total responsibility."
He handed Sorenson the container and the blonde looked at it before walking from the room. The Doctor waited for a few seconds before kneeling next to John and moving his hand to her neck to feel for her pulse. He let out a relieved sigh, her hearts were working. He placed one of his hands behind her knees and the other around her shoulders before slowly picking her up bridal style.
A quick trip to the Tardis was enough to wake her up. She looked at him in a bleary way and he simply pecked her forehead before leaving her inside. John let out a soft sigh and rested her head against the walls of the Tardis. The white circles were a source of light and lit up the main console like it was in the center of a stage. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and only opened them when she felt the antimatter frequency enter the Tardis. She wasn't going to faint again; she would fight this time. She got her wand ready and was prepared to protect herself. A hand on her's stopped her from even preparing an attack. She looked up to see who the hand belonged to.
"John don't attack him," The Doctor told her with a serious look as he released her hand.
"Fine," She nodded as he went back to Sorenson and picked him up, "But if he ups that frequency as he did earlier, I'm stunning him."
He simply placed the down Sorenson on the ground before closing the Tardis doors. He walked up to John and pressed a kiss to her lips. She gained a slightly dazed expression after he broke the kiss. She then turned confused when he pulled her to her feet.
"Please, go into the innards of the Tardis," He said in a soft tone, "Stay away from the antimatter."
"No problem," She nodded.
She sent him a concerned look and he gave her a small smile before nodding his head towards the door that led to the innards. She started walking away and went to wait out the rest of this adventure in her room. She supposed that she could get started on making some new clothes. It was something that would keep her busy, so she didn't have to worry about the Doctor.
She entered her room and let out a sigh as the antimatter frequency cut off. Her head was pounding, and she decided against making her clothes. She kicked her shoes off and headed to the dresser to pull out a large nightshirt. It had come out of her briefcase. It was something she had gotten for Christmas one year; Sherlock had said he had grown tired of watching her nightgowns get thrown away when they became too small and she was too lazy to fix it with magic.
She changed and climbed into bed. The moment her head hit the pillow she was out. The Tardis turned the light off in the room and began to hum a soft tune to help rid herself of the antimatter frequency. The Tardis hadn't liked having antimatter inside her either. She slowly got worried as her hitchhiker started to mumble and writhe in her sleep.
A peaceful sleep had turned into a nightmare.
John's eyes were moving side to side under her lids at a rapid pace as she said something in her sleep. She was aware of what she was dreaming of. She knew it was a dream, or rather a nightmare. It was memories of the war mixed with something...she didn't really know what it was. She watched as someone was crushed under some falling debris when a giant had attacked one of the castle towers. It quickly changed as the face of a demon surrounded in fire appeared in its stead. She bolted up in bed and panted as sweat went down her face, her chest heaving from her panting.
Her door opened and she dropped from the bed and got ready to protect herself. As the Doctor peeked in, she relaxed. She rested her forehead against her mattress and let out a soft sigh of relief. He turned on the lights and walked further into her room. She got up and walked towards him. He didn't even get to say anything as she began to search him for any injuries. When she was satisfied that he was all right she gave him a hug from behind.
He gave a soft smile at that and placed his hands on top of hers. The door to her room began to close and the two paid it no mind. The Doctor had some time before he needed to be back at the main console room to take control of the flight through the time vortex. He moved so that they were facing each other, and he noticed the way John looked.
As much as he would love to stay with her for the night, she needed sleep. He began to push her back to the bed and she let out a sound of understanding. She got into the bed and went under the covers. He laid on top of them and placed his arms around her waist.
He stayed with her until she fell asleep once again, this time with happier dreams. He waited a few minutes before pressing a kiss to her head and slipping off the bed.
He had a ship to pilot.