False Health
The group stood around the main table, looking down at the map that had been found.
"Deactivate your organic component," Adelaide repeated.
"All the suits got the same command," Tasker nodded. "Best guess, someone hacked the network."
"And you survived how?"
"We were off-network," the woman, Abby, explained. "You have to be to repair the conveyors." She pointed at the section of the station they'd been in.
"It was just dumb luck."
"The measurements are in average breaths?" Adelaide asked.
"The only unit worth a damn out here."
The Doctor sighed. "Of course they are."
"Forty breaths to the dorms, one twenty to the core." Abby traced a finger down the map. "That's where we're headed. It's the safest place."
Bill and Ivan rejoined them, Bill's suit functioning properly at least for the moment. "Are there more suits inside the base or out?" the Doctor stepped closer to Adelaide as he spoke.
"Outside is suicide."
"Inside we can move faster than them," Tasker explained. "Outside they have the edge. Which means we're dead."
Nardole frowned. "What are you mining? Is it worth stealing?"
"You think this is a robbery?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Well, killing you'd be a good start if it was."
"It's how I'd do it." Everyone but Adelaide looked to Nardole in shock. "If I was to do that sort of thing. Which, actually, I probably wouldn't, so please don't worry."
"If the product has more value than the life of the individuals harvesting it..." Adelaide added, which drew the shock of the group, and particularly the Doctor. "It is logical, in its own manner." The Doctor looked hurt and Adelaide hated that she cared. "How productive have you been recently?"
"This is the least productive we've all been for months," Dahh-Ren admitted.
"Look, we're mining copper ore. You'd need to steal a mountain to make it worth your while."
The Doctor stepped away from Adelaide. "Your employers. Any help from them?"
"They're too far away."
"Not that it matters," Ivan said. "Whoever hacked the suits also cut the radio."
"So your distress call..."
Ivan shrugged. "Was a botch. I boosted a suit radio through the dish."
The Doctor nodded. "Good job."
"What about the AI in the suits?" Adelaide asked, remembering the Vardies.
"They're dumb as rocks."
"But are they capable of learning? Evolving? Growing?"
"Maybe get tired of carrying pesky humans around?" the Doctor looked to Nardole. "Know the feeling?" Nardole nodded.
"They've got limited problem-solving," Ivan said, "and that's it."
The Doctor frowned at Adelaide. "We're missing something. What are we missing?"
"Oxygen," Abby said. "That's what we're missing. Maybe find some of that and leave the big picture till later, yeah?"
Before anyone could speak again, an alarm went off. Tasker rushed to the side to check the monitor, but his eyes went wide. "They're fixing the lock!"
Abby stepped back. "Well then, it's time to go."
"Limited problem-solving, eh?" Nardole scoffed.
"West corridor is free," Ivan called. "Forty breaths to the core. Let's move."
That time, Adelaide moved before the Doctor could reach for her, though she didn't know if he would try.
She didn't want to know.
|C-S|
By the time they'd reached the airlock, they'd lost Tasker to the suits. Adelaide tried not to think too hard on his death. Ivan locked the door behind them. "Helmets on," he instructed.
The Doctor, immediately, turned to Adelaide, though it was Bill who sounded the most terrified. "Where are we going?" Bill asked, voice shaking.
"Outside."
"Well, didn't they say that was a bad idea?"
"It is. But I know a worse one." Adelaide nodded at the Doctor and he stepped up to Bill. The helmet would be difficult, as much as Adelaide wished for otherwise, but, honestly, being out in space...it would help. Though she knew she could die out there much quicker than she would die underwater, the expanse of space was good. Comforting. Adelaide was better when she was surrounded by stars.
The fact that Adelaide looked relatively calm did not seem to help Bill. "Wait, why, why, why, why, do I need that? What about the air forcefield thing?"
"Not strong enough for a vacuum. Trust me." The Doctor fitted Bill's helmet over her.
"What happens if I throw up in my helmet?"
"Color and smells," Nardole said.
Bill nodded. "Don't throw up in helmet then. Check."
The Doctor moved past Bill back to Adelaide, almost reaching for her hand. "Warning. Helmet malfunction," Velma said.
"Er...Doctor?"
The Time Lord turned again as the suit spoke again. "Please advise local technician."
Bill's suit reached up and took her helmet back off. "Somebody stop it!"
The Doctor rushed forward. "Put it back on!"
"Doctor, that's not me doing that."
"Put it back on!"
"I'm trying." Bill's face grew even more panicked. "I can't move my arms!"
Adelaide looked at Ivan. "Stop the cycle."
"We can't stop it. It's automated."
The Doctor tried to sonic Bill's suit, trying to stop it. "Now we know why your suit was being repaired." Nothing happened and the Doctor grabbed Bill's arms. "Bill. Bill! You're about to be exposed to the vacuum of space."
"Oh, God!"
"So don't hold your breath."
Bill nodded. "Or my lungs'll explode."
"You were listening," Adelaide said, thankful that she could remain calm, despite the imminent threat. "Well done."
Bill began to cry, truly and utterly terrified. "What are we going to do?"
Before anyone could answer, the airlock opened. The Doctor reached for Bill.
Adelaide wished he wasn't so self-sacrificing, and hated that she loved him for it.
|C-S|
"You're an idiot," Adelaide mumbled, sitting next to the Doctor, staring at his face. His blind face. His stupidly blind self-sacrificing face.
"You say that like that's new information." He smiled. "Shouldn't you go check on Bill?"
"She's fine. After what you did."
"Would you have preferred I let her die?"
Adelaide sighed. "I don't know what I would have preferred." She was quiet for a moment. "You could have died."
"But I didn't."
"We don't know how much regeneration energy you actually have. You can't just do things like that."
"We?"
Adelaide blinked. "I mean..."
"Just friends?"
She nodded, swallowing. "Just friends." Adelaide looked up at the sound of the plastic sheeting rustling, immediately straightening.
Bill, worried, had come to see the Doctor. "Doctor?"
Slowly, the Doctor stood. He'd been sitting with his back to the sheeting, so he had to turn to face Bill. "Bill. You're up."
"You're blind."
"I am?" the Doctor laughed. "Well, that explains the bruised shins." Bill rushed forward and hugged him tightly. "Oh, don't get all gooey on me. It's temporary."
"Really?"
The Doctor stepped back. "Yeah. Once we get back to the TARDIS."
"The TARDIS?"
"I've got stuff in there that'll cure anything. Failing that, I think I've got some spare eyes somewhere. Adelaide should be able to find them. They're from a lizard, but I'm sure they'll fit."
"So...er...until then?"
The Doctor frowned as Adelaide stood. "Until then what? You really think this," he gestured at his face, "is going to slow me down? I do most of my best work ordering other people around."
"Be thankful Dahh-Ren left," Adelaide mumbled, which made the Doctor grin again.
Bill crossed her arms. "So, what's the plan?"
The remaining crew of the ship came through the sheeting, joining them. "Well, we've all been trying to get a radio working," Dahh-Ren said, "and they've been...thinking."
"Don't mean to hurry you," Abby added, "but in seven hundred breaths I'll be dead."
"I need to think." The Doctor turned and walked away, but Adelaide followed him to the side, stopping him just before he ran into loose metal.
"He really doesn't like help," Nardole told Bill, though he was watching the Time Lady. "Except from her, it seems."
"A lot of things seem to be except for her."
Nardole shrugged at that.
An alarm went off and Abby moved to check the reason. "It's a transponder, from a ship." Dahh-Ren moved to follow her.
Bill, instead, went up to the Time Lords just as the Doctor gave Adelaide his sonic. "You two okay?"
"Bill, we've got no TARDIS, one sonic, about ten minutes of oxygen left, and now I'm blind." The Doctor grinned. "Can you imagine how unbearable I'm going to be when I pull this off?"
Bill shook her head. "Don't do this. You always do this."
"Do what?"
"Make jokes to distract me from whatever's about to kill us."
"What else are jokes for?"
"Adelaide!" Nardole called, knowing the Time Lady was more likely to be paying attention to him. "There's a rescue ship on the way."
"We've picked up a company transponder," Dahh-Ren added.
Abby frowned. "If there's a rescue ship on the way, then how can the rescue ship already be here?"
"Too many rescue ships. There's a first-world problem."
Abby shook her head at the Time Lord. "Who are you?"
The Doctor looked more to Adelaide, as though he were asking her for permission, and she touched his arm. "I'm the Doctor," he said. She was thankful that he wasn't including her. As much as she hated him just taking control, there was the simple fact that...he knew what he was doing. Most of the time, he was good at it. And she did still love him for it. "I will do everything in my power to save all your lives. And when I do, you will spend the rest of them wondering who I was and why I helped you. If anyone's offering a better deal, be my guest."
"You didn't save Tasker, did you? And he believed you. Trusted you. And now he's dead. Can you give me one reason why you shouldn't join him?" Abby pointed her blaster at the Doctor's head. Immediately, Adelaide pulled the Time Lord back, narrowing her eyes at the human before her actions truly registered.
Ivan rushed forward. "Whoa! Whoa! We're all getting a little punchy here. It's the oxygen thinning. It's making it harder to think."
"Will you get out of my way!" Abby cried, at the same time that Dahh-Ren cried out as a corpse touched him, sending a jolt of electricity over him.
"Instruction received," his suit said. "Complying. Please remain calm while your central nervous system is disabled."
Dahh-Ren tried to fight his suit, desperate, but Adelaide pulled the Doctor further away. "No, no!"
Abby fired at the other corpses as they approached. "Head for the reactor core! Run!"
Adelaide forced the Doctor to turn and run as Dahh-Ren died. "What's happening?" he asked her, trying to look around, as though he could see.
"Guess!"
The final survivors reached the corridor, Ivan leading. "They knew we were there, somehow."
"Voice rec," Abby guessed. "Had to be."
Bill, behind them all, stopped. "Adelaide?" she called, making the Time Lady turn. The human's suit was flashing red again, frozen. "My suit! It's doing it again! I can't move!"
Ivan moved towards her, looking the suit over. "The sequencer's jammed. It needs a reboot."
"How long will that take?"
"Too long."
The Doctor nodded. "Okay, we'll pick her up. Come on."
Nardole moved to do that, but Bill's suit turned on the boots, locking her in place. "Warning. This is an illegal maneuver."
"The suit won't let us. Health and safety."
"Health and safety?"
Bill's eyes were wide again. "Doctor?"
"Okay, get her out of her suit. Give her mine."
Ivan shook his head. "The sequencer controls the release clamps. We can't get her out."
"Well, we can't leave her here. They'll kill her!"
"Please do not interfere with the operation of this suit," Velma said. "Fines may be incurred."
"Oh, great," Bill scoffed. "I'll get fined for dying!"
The Doctor reached out and touched Adelaide's shoulder. "Fined for dying," he repeated. The Time Lady nodded, though he couldn't see the movement.
"Doctor?"
"What if there never was a hack?" the Doctor said, making clear that he and Adelaide had realized the same thing. "What if this is just business? Business as usual."
"What do you mean?"
The Doctor stepped forward, reaching for Bill. "Bill. Bill, do you trust me?"
"Why are you saying that?"
"We're going to have to leave you here," Adelaide told her.
"What? I'll die!"
The Doctor shook his head. "You're not going to die. But I won't lie to you, this will not be good."
Abby stepped closer. "We have to go. Now."
"You will go through hell, but you will come through it," the Doctor continued. "And I, and Adelaide, will be waiting on the other side."
"But what if I was going to die..."
"You're not going to die!"
"Would you just say exactly the same?"
The Doctor stepped back to Adelaide's side. "We will see you soon."
Bill looked near tears. "Just tell me a joke before you go." Adelaide took the Doctor's arm again, guiding him through the corridor. "Just tell me a joke!"
"If we're wrong..." Adelaide mumbled to the Doctor as they hurried.
"We're not wrong."
They heard Bill scream.
|C-S|
Once they reached the reactor, Adelaide helped the Doctor work with the wires to make his idea properly work. Behind them, a torch – wielded by Bill's suit – was attempting to cut its way into the room to reach them.
"This isn't going to work," Nardole said, standing by the Doctor and Adelaide.
"Isn't it?" the Doctor looked towards Nardole as he worked. "Why, what do you think Adelaide and I are doing?"
"Electrolysis. Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen."
The Doctor pointed at him. "Oh, that's clever. I wish I could see me doing that. I'm glad Adelaide can."
"Doctor, that water is cooling the nuclear core. We'd enjoy five minutes of oxygen before the whole thing overheated and blew."
He nodded. "Yes, five whole minutes! We could boil the hell out of an egg! Stop being such a quitter!" Adelaide passed him the cable that he reached for.
Nardole looked between the Time Lords. "Doctor, Adelaide, it wasn't either of your faults. You couldn't have saved her."
"You know what's wrong with this universe? Believe me, I've looked into it. Everyone says it's not their fault." The Doctor's voice grew harsh, almost as though he didn't realize it was happening. "Well, yes, it is. All of it. It's all your fault. So, what are you going to do about it?"
"There's nothing we can do! She's dead."
"She's not any deader than any of us," Adelaide said, remaining calm.
The Doctor turned to Adelaide. "Get me to a keyboard."
Nardole frowned. "What? Why?"
"Because we're not trying to make oxygen." Adelaide guided the Doctor by his arm towards the keyboard she'd spotted.
Ivan eyed them. "You think you have a plan."
"We've got exactly one plan left."
"What plan?"
The Doctor grinned. "The big one. The one you've been waiting for all your life."
Abby looked to Nardole. "What's he doing?"
The humanoid leaned forward to look at the screen. "Coolant system again."
The Doctor nodded. "Yes, I've rejigged it a tiny little bit. Either that or I've really screwed up the plumbing. It's tough when you're blind, but Adelaide helped, so it probably worked splendidly."
Abby crossed her arms. "We need to know about this plan."
The Doctor pointed in the vague direction of her voice, although he missed slightly. "Ah-ha. The nice thing about life is, however bad it gets, there's always one last option available." The computer beeped. "Dying well."
Abby moved to another computer terminal, typing quickly, before she gasped. "No. No!"
"What is it?"
"Our life signs. They've wired them to the coolant system. If we die, it vents."
Adelaide nodded. "When the suits kill us, the core will blow and the whole station will be destroyed. A very big investment, all gone in quite a big explosion."
"Is that really the best you've got? Revenge?"
"Not just revenge," the Doctor said. "It's revenge as bright as the sun. It's revenge you can see across galaxies!" He grinned. "Not bad for a blind man."
"A blind man with help."
Ivan tried to work at the other terminal, trying to do something, but nothing happened. "They've locked us out of the subroutine."
The Doctor shrugged. "Oh, I'm sorry, I just thought I was tweeting."
Abby glanced back at the doors. "They're through the third lock."
"Open the doors," Adelaide ordered.
"Are you out of your mind?"
"Well, Adelaide's not, but I am, completely," the Doctor said, reaching out to touch Adelaide's shoulder again as if it was his only anchor in the universe. "But that's not a recent thing. Listen, all we've got left is a good death. This is the moment you've been waiting for since the day you were born. Don't screw it up now."
Abby shook her head. "There's rescue ships on the way."
"No, there isn't!" the Doctor took a breath, calming himself. "No, there isn't. There was never a rescue ship."
"What are you talking about?"
"There was no hacking, no malfunction," Adelaide explained. "The suits are doing precisely what they were ordered to do by your employers."
"And what would that be?"
"Save the oxygen that you are wasting. You said that you'd become inefficient. The conveyors were down."
Abby raised her eyebrows. "So everyone had to die?"
"You were merely the organic components and you were no longer efficient. If they view the product as more valuable, logically, you are the ones that would be thrown away."
The Doctor nodded. "Check on that rescue ship if you don't believe her. Access the log."
Ivan did as told, though Abby shook her head. "No, not true. None of it. You two...you're just lunatics."
"It is true, Abby," Ivan said. "The ship, it set off before the distress call."
"They're not your rescuers. They're your replacements." The Doctor shrugged. "The endpoint of capitalism. A bottom line where human life has no value at all. We're fighting an algorithm, a spreadsheet. Like every worker, everywhere, we're fighting the suits."
Somewhere in the ship, a klaxon sounded. "They're nearly through!" Ivan cried.
The Doctor turned to face it. "Open up. Let's send them a message. Let's teach them a lesson they will never forget. If they take our lives, we take their station and every penny they will ever make from it. Die well! It's the finish line! It's winning!"
There was a moment of quiet. "Open it," Abby ordered. Ivan sighed, but he obeyed. Everyone in the room froze as the corpses, led by Bill, entered the room.
"Doctor!" Nardole hissed, moving slowly closer to the Time Lord. "Doctor..."
"What?"
"It's Bill."
The Doctor nodded. "Of course it's Bill. Fate, me, and Adelaide, we have a thing." He raised his voice to a normal volume. "Hello, suits. Our deaths will be brave and brilliant and unafraid. But above all, suits, our deaths will be..." he paused for emphasis, "expensive!" All of the suits froze. Adelaide, with the Doctor's sonic in hand, moved through the suits, looking them over as the Doctor continued. "Check your readings. We die, your precious station dies. The whole thing will blow. The company will make the biggest loss in its history. A moment ago, we were too expensive to live. Now we're more expensive dead." The Doctor spread his arms. "Welcome to the rest of your lives."
"But you said that we were going to die," Abby said.
"Technically, I said we were as dead as Bill," Adelaide corrected. "I merely neglected to explain that Bill is not actually dead." She soniced Bill's suit and couldn't help but smile as the human breathed in. "The Doctor and I noticed earlier that her suit battery was too low for an actually lethal dose."
The Doctor nodded. "Adelaide and I, we know what it takes to kill someone. She's even officially credited with discovering some of them."
One of the corpses walked closer to Ivan and his eyes widened, clearly recognizing her. "Ellie..."
"What are they doing?"
The Doctor waved a hand at Abby. "Relax. They're giving us their oxygen. It's good for business."
The other corpses moved towards the rest of the group, exchanging their oxygen tanks. "I'm not sure I'm very happy about it," Nardole mumbled.
"Thank you," Ivan told the corpse of Ellie.
When the corpses stepped back, Nardole cheered. "It worked!"
Bill took a few quick breaths. "I think..."
"Yeah?" the Doctor prompted.
"I think I'm alive."
"Yep. You do seem to be under that impression."
Bill turned and hugged Adelaide, as the Time Lady was the closest, though she did reach out and pull the Doctor to join them. Nardole hurried over, finishing the hug with a mumble of "cuddle". Adelaide had to resist her instinct to cringe and push away.
And she had to tell herself that it wasn't based in relief at finally being able to hug the Doctor again.
|C-S|
Nardole stood before the Doctor, small machine in hand, while Adelaide leaned at the console above them, watching. She'd been tempted to stand by the Doctor while this happened to ensure Nardole did everything properly, but she forced herself to stop and stay away.
The Doctor and her were just friends. Only friends.
Adelaide ignored how much that hurt her to admit. She was rather good at ignoring things like that.
"Okay," Nardole said. "Keep your eyes open. Keep them open up there, that's it." Adelaide watched the milky sheen fade from the Doctor's eyes.
"You could have told us your actual plan in the first place," Abby told Adelaide, stepping closer as the Time Lady was the one close to the humans.
"The suits would have heard if the Doctor or I told Bill that her battery was too weak. I've learned over the centuries that it is not wise to tell your enemies your secret plan."
"Better?"
The Doctor stood and, in response, the TARDIS made noises. "Hmm..." he said, looking around. "Ah, we're back in the TARDIS. When did that happen?" he came up to the main level.
"Thank you, Doctor, Adelaide, for all that you've done," Abby said, looking between them. "I'm sorry that I didn't have more faith in your methods."
"Ah, don't mention it." He waved a hand. "Now, Adelaide and I can set you down on a hub world outside of corporate control, or anywhere, really. The universe is your crustacean."
Abby looked at Ivan. "Head office. We've got a complaint to make."
The Doctor grinned. "I think we can arrange that." He came beside Adelaide, beginning to work the console. She watched his hands with a small frown. "Promise me you'll be loud?"
"Promise."
If the Doctor noticed Adelaide's expression, he did not mention it. He didn't even properly look at her.
|C-S|
Back in the Doctor's office, he sat with his feet up, sonic shades on. The moment they'd returned to Earth, he'd put on the glasses, claiming that he felt like wearing them, for the sake of style. Adelaide left him, Bill, and Nardole to go back to her TARDIS and see if she could either repair her broken sonic or just get a new one.
"Does it work?" Bill asked. She'd wanted to stay near at least one of the Time Lords for a bit after nearly dying.
"Does what work?"
"Making a complaint to Head Office."
The Doctor shrugged. "No idea. Never had a head office. Neither did Adelaide. She never bothered with governmental things like that. But as far as I remember, there's a successful rebellion six months later. Corporate dominance in space is history, and that about wraps it for capitalism."
Bill grinned. "Yay!"
"Then the human race finds a whole new mistake." He waved a hand. "But that's another story."
"Can't wait."
He switched to pointing at her. "But you will."
Bill took another breath, finally calm enough, and moved to the door. "Laters!"
"Laters."
The door closed at the same time that Nardole re-entered from the connecting room. "Never again."
"Stop talking. Now." The Doctor didn't bother with manners when Adelaide wasn't nearby to scold him, though he knew she would prefer it if he made them a permanent habit. Especially now...
"I'm serious. We were so close to not making it back. Then what happens to the vault? You know what's at stake here."
"Really, stop talking."
"What if you got killed out there, huh? Or Adelaide? What happens to your precious Earth then? One of you, and preferably you, needs to be here, and you need to be ready if that door ever opens." Nardole moved forward as the Doctor's gaze fell to the side. "Look at me."
"I can't."
"What if you came back injured or sick? You really think our friend down there won't know that? Won't sense it?" he surged forward again. "Look at me!"
"Nardole, I can't." The Doctor turned towards the humanoid's voice. "I really can't! I can't look at anything ever again." His voice went quieter, as though he was worried Adelaide could still hear him. "I'm still blind."
|C-S|
"How was your adventure?" the interface asked Adelaide as she entered her TARDIS, immediately appearing beside the console. Adelaide swore that its hair had grown. Every time she'd seen it, it looked slightly different, as though it was still finding the form it preferred.
"Refreshing." Adelaide pulled her broken sonic from her pocket. "Can this be repaired?"
The interface fixed its attention on it, eyes shimmering a darker green. "Yes." A section of the console opened. "Deposit it inside."
She did so. "Thank you."
"Would you like any upgrades?"
If Adelaide was being honest, she would have preferred to not even repair it. She would have preferred to rely on nothing but a TARDIS. But after so long with this sonic pen, and because it had been a gift from the Doctor's TARDIS...she couldn't just abandon it because it broke. "No."
A small beep and the console opened again, her repaired sonic sticking out. Adelaide couldn't help but smile as she took it.
She honestly couldn't say if she was smiling because of her repaired sonic, or because of the adventure with the Doctor. Adelaide almost didn't bother to determine the truth.
She was happy, and that was fine.
A/N: More teamwork from our Time Lords! And some more revelations from Adelaide about how much she does actually still care for the Doctor. Seeing him in peril tends to do that for her ;)
