CHAPTER 2

DELIRIOUS

"Jason!" the Doctor gasped. He turned his companion over and was stunned by his appearance. He touched the boy's green and mottled skin, discovering at the same time he was burning with fever.

Jason lay gasping for breath a moment before finally attempting to speak. He had dragged himself the last few yards to the console room door and was completely exhausted. He took hold of the Doctor's coat and gasped out weakly, "Doctor…you're in danger. Great…danger."

"Danger?" the puzzled Time Lord echoed.

"From me. Draconian flu…unstable in…adults." Jason continued to weaken as he spoke.

"You should be in bed."

"No. Please, you…you must...listen!" Swallowing hard, Jason fought desperately to convey his warning. "I…I could…kill you. Please, you must...you must…" His voice trailed off and he went limp, his strength having given out.

"Poor boy's delirious," the Doctor muttered. He lifted the unconscious youth into his arms, carrying him back to his room and returning him to bed. He then got a large container of cold juice so as to begin forcing fluids into his fever-ridden companion the moment he woke up. Thus prepared, the Doctor started paging through one of the Alterran Healer's medical texts.

"Let's see now, Draconian flu," he mumbled, flipping through the pages. "Draconian…Ah! Here it is, Draconian Flu." Throwing a quick glance in Jason's direction, the Doctor sat down and started to read. He learned that the Draconian flu derived its name from the unmistakable green coloring it produced on the skin. It was the common name for an equally common Alterran juvenile illness. The symptoms included; muscular weakness, high fever, and, of course, green skin. The onset of the disease was rapid and lasted anywhere from a few days to more than a week.

The Doctor looked up when Jason moaned and stirred, his eyes opening slowly. "Jason, I want you to drink this," he said gently, bringing him a glass of cold liquid and insisting that he consume at least half of it.

Unable to comply fully, Jason pushed the glass away and sank back onto the bed. The Doctor tried to coax him into attempting more, but to no avail. Giving up, he put down the glass and picked up the book. "According to this," the Time Lord grinned amusedly, "you've got the Alterran equivalent to the measles."

"It's not funny, Doctor," Jason snapped irritably.

"Sorry. I've been reading up on your illness while you were…er, dozing."

"You haven't read…the dangers yet, have you?"

"No, why?"

"You'd better. You need…to know…" Closing his eyes, Jason sighed resignedly. "Lord, I'm so tired…"

There was something in his tone that sent a chill down the Doctor's spine. He returned his attention to the book, finding a highlighted section of text on the following page that finally made sense out of Jason's desperation to reach him. While Draconian Flu was only a minor annoyance in children, it was highly unpredictable in adults. A patient could lapse into a coma for days, become violent, or even oscillate between the two. In some severe cases, psychotic behavior manifested itself, necessitating the use of tranquilizers and confinement until the crisis stage passed.

The Doctor stopped reading and looked up sharply, seeing his companion had quietly dozed off. He rose to his feet, going straight to the console room where he immediately changed course for the nearest Alterran medical facility. Glancing at the text he had inadvertently brought with him, he sighed. It looked as if their trip to Earth would be postponed yet again...

During the Doctor's brief absence, Jason's condition deteriorated sharply. By the time he returned from the console room, the boy was a deep shade of olive green. His breathing was rapid and his temperature was climbing. The Doctor started to sponge him down and was relieved when the Alterran's striking blue eyes fluttered open and looked up at him. It was obvious Jason was fighting to maintain his lucidity and the Time Lord stopped him from attempting to speak, telling him they were on course for the nearest medical base.

"How long?" Jason asked almost inaudibly.

"About eighteen hours."

This only served to upset the Healer now turned patient further. He shook his head in despair. "No. No…too long…too long." The Doctor tried to calm him without success. He was too intent on reproaching himself for not having recognized his own symptoms sooner.

"It's too late for recriminations now, my boy," the Doctor said in a voice that was far more cheerful than he felt.

"No, not yet." Jason's clouded eyes suddenly cleared, fixing themselves on his friend's face. In a voice that was deadly serious, he said, "Doctor, you must…restrain me. Now. Before it's too late."

"What!"

"You'll need to…chain me down. It's the…only way…you'll be safe."

The Doctor was horrified. "Jason, I can't do that!"

"You must! Doctor, please…you don't…you don't understand." The Alterran seemed on the point of tears, desperate and terrified. "I don't want to…hurt you. I'd die if I did."

"You wouldn't—" The Doctor broke off when his companion's hand clamped down on his arm. "Doctor, like this…I could kill you!" Releasing his grip, Jason fell back and shivered. "Oh, Lord…I'm so…cold," he whispered.

"Your temperature's very high," the Time Lord told him as he resumed sponging him down.

Feeling his strength failing him again, Jason pleaded pitifully, "Doctor, please. I'm not delirious. You must…do as I ask. Please."

"Jason, that book of yours says the danger is only in the rarest of cases. What makes you so sure yours will be one of them?"

"Because I've…I've…" the Alterran's voice trailed off as he passed out once again. He was trying to tell the Doctor that he'd already had the disease as a child but, apparently, it hadn't been serious enough for his body to produce the antibodies that would prevent his getting it again. As a Healer, he knew that a second time around was always an extreme case.

The Doctor sat thoughtfully for several minutes, agonizing over his inevitable decision. Heaving a heavy sigh, he rose to his feet, going on to manacle the unconscious Alterran to the heavy bedposts. Despite his illness, Jason was still a qualified physician and the Doctor bowed to the fact that he knew more about the disease than anyone.

Three hours passed without incident and Jason's condition even seeming to stabilize. He continued to float in and out of consciousness, but his temperature, although high, had not gone up. The worried Time Lord hoped this was a good sign, but knew it wouldn't last.

He was absolutely right.

Without warning the Alterran's temperature skyrocketed and he began losing his grip on reality. Knowing of nothing else to do, the Doctor decided to pack his desperately ill friend in ice to try and stop his fever from climbing. As he prepared him for this, he began regretting having chained him to the bedposts. As far as he could tell, Jason didn't have the strength to move, much less to try and harm him.

As the ice was being packed around him, Jason became delirious and thrashed wildly in his bonds. He cried out in anger and then cursed in several languages, making several insulting and downright hateful remarks that his amazed friend was certain he would be appalled to learn he had ever uttered.

The Doctor tried to calm his companion, only to be rewarded with further verbal abuse. He made a mental to inquire as to where the Alterran aristocrat had picked up his extensive gutter vocabulary. The steady stream of obscenities ended when Jason lost consciousness and fell limply back upon the bed, much to the relief of the Doctor's ears.

This scene was repeated over the next few hours. Each time Jason became more violent, thrashing and straining against the heavy chains that bound him. His illness seemed to have removed all his inhibitions and tact, allowing all his inner resentments and anger to come pouring forth, thoroughly unsettling the Doctor who never dreamed his unassuming companion could harbor such hatred. It wasn't until the Alterran started exhibiting delusions of grandeur that the Doctor really became worried, especially when his companion started threatening him with some very nasty forms of death. By this time he was very grateful he'd had the sense to listen to the Healer's warning and chain him down.

The Doctor was in the process of adding more ice to the wrappings when Jason's worst fears were realized. He began changing form. His eyes snapped open and he was suddenly a bear-like creature. He pulled at the thick chains holding him down, snapping them with ease. He then let out a terrifying howl as he got to his feet, smashing a fist against the wall and putting his massive arm straight through it. The long shaggy fur got caught on the jagged edges of the hole and he flailed angrily a moment as he tried to untangle himself.

While the Alterran's attention was diverted, the Doctor tried to slip out the door but was immediately cut off. The Beast growled angrily, bearing his fearsome white teeth before throwing the fleeing figure against the far wall, stunning him. The huge paws changed shape, the sharp claws growing longer. The snarling creature took a step towards the semi-conscious Time Lord and bumped against the bed, which diverted his attention yet again. The mattress and linen were shredded and the bed frame was turned to splinters. A section of bookcase was brought down, as was a shelf full of jars containing a portion of Jason's meticulously cataloged herb collection.

After shattering another section of wall, the incoherent Jason looked up and saw the Doctor, who had recovered his senses and was now trapped in the far corner of the room. The Alterran changed formed again, becoming a strange, lumbering creature the Doctor did not recognize. Its huge hands reached out for him and he tried to avoid their grasp, but there was no room to maneuver in the shattered debris. He slipped on some of the ice Jason had been packed in, and was stunned once more when a savage blow suddenly knocked him aside, sending him into the wall a second time.

The Doctor had no time to recover. Before he knew what was happening, he was lifted from the floor and thrown headlong into a counter full of glass beakers, which, fortunately for him, were empty. Had he landed on the other side of the counter, he would have been covered with acid.

The Alterran let out another angry howl and turned, breaking down the door with his fists and lumbering out into the corridor. From his place on the counter, the dazed and bruised Doctor gratefully watched him go, getting down from the counter only when he was certain the creature would not return.

Stumbling over to the sink, the Doctor ran cold water over his shredded hands, pulling out the glass fragments that had been embedded in them. He then used some of the linen Jason had left in his wake to wrap his hands as best he could. This would have to do for the time being, he thought shakily, looking up sharply when an angry howl echoed from out in the corridor. Drawing a deep breath, the Doctor surveyed his devastated surroundings. He righted an overturned stool and sat down, having concluded that discretion was indeed the better part of valor. He was going to stay right where he was.

The TARDIS suddenly lurched violently, throwing the unsuspecting Time Lord to the floor. He got to his feet only to be sent spinning out the door and into the corridor by a second violent spasm. "He's in the console room!" he gasped, annoyed with himself for not having considered this possibility.

The Doctor raced to the console room. Considering the damage his companion had already done to his own room, he could just imagine the control console in hundreds of irreparable bits on the floor, and wires hanging like spaghetti from the roundels. With this mental image to deal with, it was little wonder the Doctor was momentarily stunned when he opened the door to find the control room intact. The mushroom shaped control console was humming quietly in the center of the room, the time rotor rising and falling as it always did when the time machine was in flight.

Jason had transmuted yet again and was now in his true form; a creature with only a large, bulbous main body with sapphire blue crystals evenly spaces around the circumference. Numerous tendrils snaked from below the main body down to the floor where they barely touched, the graceful being hovering in the air. The Alterran's normal coloring was ivory, yet even in his true form he was still a deep shade of green. He was just inside the inner door, but gave no sign of having noticed when it opened.

The Doctor stood in the doorway silently watching the powerful being before concluding he had passed out again. He slipped in, keeping a watchful eye on Jason as he backed cautiously to the console. As soon as his hand touched it and he threw a quick glance back, looking up in time to see the blue crystals on the motionless Alterran starting to glow brightly. He immediately froze. His companion was waking up and his powerful sensors would detect his slightest movement if he wasn't careful

It was already too late.