CH. 5
Silence took Nyssa's place in the room, affecting even Tegan as she sat down on one of the consoles that had been deactivated. The cold the Doctor had warned them off had made her opt for a dark blue sweater and a pair of gray woolen pants and sensible black shoes. The part of her that looked the most familiar was therefore the scowl directed at the empty chair in which Acquintal Miros had seemed to be seated. She stood and poked at the live console next to the dead one, which seemed to be displaying a rotating schematic of at least a portion of the complex. A pulsing icon glowed white on the upper left of the screen at the far end of what seemed to be a network of corridors, to a room on the diagram that was roughly shaped like this one. Tegan rightly guessed that it was the quadrant that contained the nearest fusion reactor. On an impulse, she touched the second of the four red buttons underneath the display. Another set of corridors and another pulsing white icon for a generator appeared, this time in the opposite corners. The next two buttons provided similar views but they also produced something else, an occasional blue light that went from one corridor to the next and vanished.
Tegan had a suspicious and therefore familiar feeling in her gut as the figures appeared and vanished, furtive and quick, seeming almost to avoid one another. "Doctor?"
"I'm right here," he said quietly, oppressed by the architecture and the situation. The worries that had been vague before were now becoming concrete. His death sentence still loomed and now he had once again been forced to bring his companions into harm's way. He had turned the situation over in his mind a thousand times and always come up with the same conundrums. He needed both of them now, not merely because of the poisoning but because if he did not survive nor would they, or an entire world of beings who likely had no idea there was any danger. He took a moment to envy those Time Lords in whom emotional detachment had completely taken root. He supposed it was the fact that his mother was human that he'd never been fully able to achieve it and the Galaxy therefore never seemed to tire of obligating him to solve its problems or to amuse it. Drawing his attention back to the scanner, he took his turn watching the scurrying blue lights. He took a step back from Tegan and sat down on the nearest dead control panel.
Tegan had stopped herself from staring at him, wondering what he had been ruminating about in the long moments after he had joined her and then moved away so abruptly. "It's them, isn't it? Those poor souls who went mad from being around this matrix thing that went wrong. They're searching for food, hiding from each other, living like caged animals."
The Doctor nodded. "Yes, I believe you're right. It's a definite map of the base. They show up when they are in areas not needing shielding for scientific experiments."
"Is there radiation down there?" She asked, the first note of doubt in her voice. On this point, at least, he would be able to reassure her.
"No, not in any dangerous manner. Fusion doesn't produce radiation of a dangerous sort to us and the chronomitic particles that are affecting them are something that your time in the TARDIS will protect you from. Every living thing that enters the TARDIS enters into a state of temporal grace, time stops for it while we're actually moving through time. Your aware of time's passage save on a biomolecular level and the residue of that effect will give you an immunity to the chronomitic forces. As a Time Lord they are made part of my own genetics."
A sudden honest smile lit Tegan's face. "You mean as long as I'm in the TARDIS, I won't age?"
"Well, while the TARDIS is in motion, no. When we make planetfall or land elsewhere that's a different circumstance. Why? We're you planning on having me return to Earth and then selling rides on the TARDIS as a cosmetic treatment?" He smiled gamely and moved closer to her again, taking the warm seat where she had been several moments ago. Tegan stared at him and then laughed after a moment, the sound echoing in the shining gray room.
"I might be better selling cosmetic time travel than being a stewardess."
The Doctor smiled again, enjoying a brief respite from the dread. "I was meaning to ask you exactly how you got… what was it… sacked?"
Tegan shrugged and leaned against the active terminal, her back to the scampering blue figures and the fusion reactor. Genuine anger suddenly tainted her voice as she told the tale. "Well, if you must know – and really I don't mind telling you - , I got sacked for using "inappropriate force against a fellow crew member".
"Ah, that's my Tegan. And they deserved it, I have no doubt."
Tegan looked down at him for a moment and realized his voice lacked any trace of sarcasm. "Let's just say I ruined a certain captain's perfect record for recruits to the mile-high club."
The Doctor stared at her, "You didn't cause the plane to go down?"
Tegan stared back; sometimes what he didn't know caught her as off-guard as what he did; she then grinned wickedly for a moment, "Not the one we were riding in," she quipped, and moved on quickly before the Doctor's still unenlightened gaze drove her to a fit of inappropriate giggles. "Anyway, he didn't get what he wanted, and I got fired in Amsterdam with a severance ticket home and my final check to show for it. I was going to the airline the next day to file a complaint when the next thing I knew, I was back in the middle of another fine mess with you!"
The Doctor lowered his head and smiled, "But then there was no one better to face it. I do regret that I have made you a target."
Tegan shrugged and buried her fingers between her arms and her ribs. "I guess it was meant to be, Doc. After all, your timing was perfect – for once – and I hadn't felt alive since… well, the last time I was running for my life. I'm an adrenalin junkie with the Universe at my disposal and when I do go back to Earth and become dotty I'll have the best delusions in the retirement home."
They were still laughing when Nyssa returned, carrying a fair-sized parcel. "Sorry it took so long," she offered as the unloaded the pack she was carrying. "I wanted to divide up the drug so that if anything happened to any one of us there would still be a supply. I also retrieved three thermal blankets, a bioscanner, a medical kit, perimeter sensors, and a few other things. Do we have any idea where we should start?"
The Doctor took the parcel from her and examined the contents for a moment then looked toward the door. "One would assume he would like to make things easy. It shouldn't be too hard to find the path."
"If he wanted to make things easy," Tegan countered, "wouldn't he want us to have the TARDIS to get there?"
They were out in the hallway before he answered, seeking some sort of directional help as they approached the first juncture. The Doctor was fairly certain of the right path from his brief look at the schematics Tegan had found. "It depends," he began. (It took Tegan a moment to catch that he was answering her.) "They know very little about time travel and may be assuming not only would we take the chance to depart and see how I might fair with medical help from Gallifrey but that the TARDIS itself would be a threat to the unstable mess they've made."
"Could it?" Nyssa replied.
"Not unless they've done something truly stupid. In fact, there is a chance the TARDIS could be a stabilizing influence but we'd be wasting time to attempt that argument on --- Ah, I believe we have our guidance." All three of them could now see the slowly brightening lights in the corridor just to the right; the Doctor, however, was able to see it first. They moved into it slowly, glancing with agitation at the darkness that the selective lighting left elsewhere.
Another thought struck Tegan as she fingered the holster on her hip; she had taken two weapons when the Doctor, of course, had waved his away. "If this character knows where we're going, he can probably see us, too."
The Doctor, just behind her, smiled tightly. "Probably. Instead of a captive audience, he has captive performers but then I'd watch me, too. I've been known to be a very dangerous character."
The attempt at humor, uttered in the thin light, fell short on Tegan's ears. Her hand went to the gun again and she shifted the holster into a more comfortable position on her hip. She had thrown the other one over her head and under her left shoulder. It was awkward but manageable and it made her feel slightly better. She dreaded the thought of having to use them but once again, they'd been given little choice and she hadn't hesitated when it had come down to her or the Cybermen who had attempted to destroy the Earth. She thought of Adric, of course, and sighed to herself. Damn him for being so smart, anyway, he'd probably figured it out and run back at the last minute or something.
They walked in silence for nearly two hours, their dimly lit path toward the center of Ecosia Beta varying little in the outer perimeters. The Doctor had explained that the corridors would become more angular and serpentine as they neared the reactors and the temporal core, a means of dulling the effect of any explosion that might channel through them. As they moved it became increasingly cooler but their activity served well enough to keep them warm and the enviro-controls had been kept functioning due to the survivors eking out their horrific existence. They often passed what a glimpse through the windows in the door had proven to be the promised crew quarters. Nyssa had tried the coded passkey and it had opened all of the ones they'd tested. If nothing else, Miros had lived up to his word so far. They stopped at one their third hour into the long trip to freshen up and grab a few bites of the nutrient bars provided. They were surprised to find them quite palatable.
Nyssa wiped the dust off her fingers as she pulled open a cupboard and waved the bioscanner at the contents, then did the same to the freezer unit in the kitchen area as Tegan stood next to her. "All the food is consumable by all of us. Ecosians must be one of the offshoot races, although carbon is unique in its abilities to serve as a basis for life-forms. Mathematically it stands to reason that a great percentage of life-forms would be able to share consumables." She met Tegan's dark eyes for a moment and looked down at the scanner sharply. Tegan followed her gaze and feigned interest in what Nyssa was saying because it was giving the young Trakenite a chance to aim the device at the Doctor who was seated in the small living area behind them and scanning a few of the technical manuals slowly gathering their own dust.
"Great, the next nice planet we go to we'll get the Doc' to take us to the finest restaurant it has and have a blast. Any suggestions, Nyss?"
"We'll leave that up to the Doctor. I'm sure he knows several of them." She shut the scanner off and slipped it back in her pocket. Nyssa had also changed clothes for their journey. She was wearing a dark green sweater and tan trousers, along with the requisite comfortable shoes. Both of the women were beginning to be a bit footsore but Tegan at least was still enjoying the benefits of having left her heels behind.
Having heard them, the Doctor stood and raked a hand through his sun blond hair, practically the only show of brightness in the dark room whose walls were the stone of the moon itself. "I have to admit, I used to be quite the connoisseur in my third incarnation. I was restricted to Earth for much of it so I developed a great appreciation for Earth's cuisine. Sorry not to be more exotic Tegan, but I think I can find something a little more distant when the time comes."
Tegan smiled thinly, "Make it up to me once we're off nutrition bars on a daily basis."
"I'd be overjoyed to do so, but having spoken of time…," he gestured toward the door, a slight nod only but they were ready to proceed. Another few hours of walking lay ahead of them before they would allow themselves to recharge. Nyssa shouldered the bag with the blankets and the Doctor turned his back on them and headed out, taking for granted they were moving after him, understandably distracted and glancing back only when they had shut the door. Despite being the one best armed (Nyssa was wearing her own weapon although it brought her far less comfort) Tegan hung back as they moved onward in the quasi-darkness of the carved tunnels. She was never going to wear gray or black again after they got out of this. "So - how is he?" She barely mouthed, knowing the Doctor would hear her otherwise.
Nyssa moved closer to her to do the same, hoping she was comprehensible since her answer would be more complicated. "Nearly the same but the drug had to be designed specifically to protect the thoracic muscles. I – we didn't have time create a more broad spectrum formula. It's adapting almost like a virus, attacking him in other ways. There is a residual effect on his remaining muscles beginning, cramping, some vascular constriction. As long as we're moving it'll stave off the effects but we'll eventually have to stop ourselves and the Doctor will also tire more easily."
"Can't you give him anything?" Tegan responded, her voice barely more than the movement of her lips.
"There was no time to develop a total counteragent. It should be tolerable for him long enough to do what we need to do. It just means we'll have to travel shorter distances and rest for briefer periods. I'll talk to him when we stop."
Tegan nodded and squeezed the younger woman's arm before she moved forward, amazed by her knowledge and grateful. The Doctor looked down as Tegan drew even with him. She said nothing but he noted the set of her jaw and how her eyes never stopped moving. The dim light made them seem larger and deeper. He wondered not for the first time what in her life had so tempered her steel. Obviously events long before she had stumbled into the TARDIS had brought about her shrewdness and determination, either difficulties or a solid upbringing. He certainly hoped it was the latter. Unscientific she might be, but Tegan was as sharp as they came on many other levels and Nyssa as sharp on the rest. If he survived this, it would be due to them both. Before them, the darkness beckoned, welcoming, cruel, and relentless, only the hope at its end driving them on…