It was Nyssa who woke first, pushing off the covers and twisting her loosened clothing back into place. She wished they'd had a way to have proper sleeping clothes but in these situations it was sometimes best if one was dressed to move quickly. She moved to step down carefully from the top bunk, intending to begin breakfast for all of them them and to prepare a dosage of the medication for the Doctor. It was as she turned that she noticed that the Doctor was not alone, that Tegan lay beside him but not touching him, a fine sheen of sweat covering her as she slept. She also realized the Doctor was actually sleeping, not in the healing trance, which meant he had done what repairs could be done for now and was merely lightly resting, soon to wake. He had no idea that Tegan had been or was in the bed with him, obviously out of what had to be some unforeseen concern. Nyssa was unaware of any other relationship between the Doctor and Tegan that would have lead to this otherwise and considering their living circumstances there was little she would have missed.
Reason overcame her surprise and confusion after a few minutes and it was then that she recognized the thermal blanket and realized what the only logical prompting of the situation had to have been. Feeling slightly foolish at her own wonderings, she lowered herself silently to the floor, leaned over Tegan, and put her fingertips over Tegan's mouth as she shook her gently, not saying a word.
Tegan's eyes opened in seconds and she met Nyssa's gaze with a blush deepened by the fact she was already flush with warmth. Moving slowly and silently, she moved out from the covers and stood up, saying nothing until they were out in the living area. "It wasn't anything like you're thinking," she fumbled out, still speaking softly.
Nyssa laughed quietly, "Yes, it was, Tegan. Because all I thought was that the Doctor must've been freezing and you solved the problem with the only recourse available to us. Even if he'd known I'm sure he would've gotten over the shock of it in favor of the need." The lie was a small one and telling Tegan she had indeed wondered at first would serve no purpose but to worsen the situation. She touched her friend's arm for a moment and the Australian woman's blush began to fade. "I'm glad you were here. If he knew, I think it would have been far more uncomfortable for him if it had been me and Trakenites have somewhat lower body temperatures than Humans."
"Do you think he knows?"
"Perhaps. It depends on how far down into himself the healing trance took him. Best to not bring it up."
"It doesn't bother me, Nyss, but his lot are so uptight about that sort of thing, I don't know what to think. Do you have anything that would help him?"
Nyssa shook her head doubtfully. "I don't think so. The Doctor is able to tolerate much greater cold than we are from the outside, but this is from the inside and it's very cool here on this moon. The toxin is wreaking havoc with him in ways that I don't think this Miros even believed it would."
Tegan looked up at that, "I thought the same thing. He would've wanted the Doctor to be able to function better than this, even if he knew you'd be helping him."
Nyssa's head rose abruptly, her chestnut curls bouncing as a sigh erupted from her, "Or perhaps I'm not as good as Miros thought."
"I doubt that very much," Tegan responded. "Come on, we need to see if our friends are still out there and to get moving. We still have a long way to go."
Nyssa prepared the injection as Tegan prepared some quick food and more of the Ecosian tea. Nyssa went down to one knee and gently tilted the Doctor's head to one side; she felt for the jugular and then injected the drug so slowly he didn't wake. She was gathering her things when he did a half-hour later, and saw her tossing away the empty ampoule of the drug. It caught the Doctor's eye and his fingertips brushed at his throat. It was when his hand came clear of the blanket that he became aware of the coolness of the room. "Curious."
Nyssa turned with a smile, "Good mor… well, whatever it is. What's curious?"
"I never should have been able to generate that much heat. There must be something very unusual about these blankets. Did you use yours?" The Doctor sat up, reaching for his sweater, and putting on his coat a moment later as he stood.
"No, Doctor, I was quite fine without it. Come on, Tegan's got food for us. Is it morning or …?" She asked, more to change the subject than anything.
"Of course, poisoned or not, I am still a Time Lord. I can keep track of that even inside of this moon, but as we go deeper and the circumference of the moon lessens for us, the time of diurnal duration becomes shorter than on the surface. Even a good time piece could never account for that. You injected me while I was asleep, good thinking, makes for a much better waking. Come on; let's see if we still have to get by our visitors from last night."
Tegan was looking out the door window when they went into the next room, pulling the towel down carefully a moment later. "They're gone, unless they're hiding under the door and I gave it a pretty sound banging to flush them out. How are you, Doc'?"
"As well as I can be for now. You've prepared a fine meal, I see. Let's enjoy it and get moving."
They did, and even found a thermos-type vessel in which to carry a few pints of the Ecosian tea. The two Ecosians were gone, drawn off by whatever primitive force had taken over their minds. The Doctor suspected little was left beyond eating and that was facilitated by whatever means were necessary. He doubted there was anything to be done to restore them given the time they'd been surviving as little more than beasts. If they were forced to kill any of them it would be more mercy than murder. None of them would have could have envisioned such a death as the one they were suffering, scientists and technicians turned demented and bestial. He realized Tegan would have had the same thoughts and would not hesitate to kill if they were threatened but he had no desire to have her make that decision once again. On the freighter surrounded by Cybermen, he was unaware she had left the TARDIS and brought herself into the situation without him. Here they were together and he owed his companions more allegiance that the sad, deranged souls around them. Distasteful as it was, he took the extra gun from her some hours later. The distant sounds of the mad were no longer so distant and in the increasingly tight and twisting stone corridors they were coming from more and more directions.
Nyssa had never felt her intellectual abilities more called to the fore, not because of the toxin that she was helping the Doctor to battle but because of the need to keep back the dread the darkness brought on, as if it were a living thing as threatening as the creatures that had once been persons of learning. They could see a hundred or so yards around them as the strips of lights in the ceiling and the junctures of the floor and walls guided them down into the moon. They remained lit behind them to the extent of their vision.
Nyssa didn't know if they were lit all the way back to the entrance but doubted it, yet another way to keep them from retreating. She had mapped their progress so far with the ground navigation instrument she had in the pack over her shoulder. They still had a few days travel left to get where they were going. She hoped that once they reached there, if the Doctor was able to undo what had been done, that he would be able to use the new recall circuit and bring the TARDIS to them. She couldn't imagine Miros would chose to have his family return through the path they were being forced to take because of his lack of faith in the Doctor and his worry that the TARDIS would further damage the unstable departure matrix. The sound of nearby breathing caught her attention. She looked first at the Doctor but found him looking well enough if already somewhat fatigued to her right and Tegan looked as brusque as ever. "Doctor?"
"I hear it," he answered as he turned, looking behind them and around them as they moved again toward the wall. Tegan's weapon was out but pointed at the ground. A rustle brought their eyes upward and a dirty face peered back at the through the vent of the life-support system. This one belonged to a female. Her hair fell in dirty shreds around her face but her uniform still had its collar. She was lying down on the vent, looking at them with hunger in her eyes but too timid to attack alone. Her face was a bit fuller than the other two had previously been but her teeth were filthy and one was chipped.
The Doctor remained where he was, trying to meet her eyes. "Hello, can you understand me?"
It was the first voice she had obviously heard in months that carried a semblance of sanity. She looked calmer for a moment, and then, as if reminded of the rationality taken from her, she shrieked and scrambled over the vent fast enough for them to see that her uniform was fitly but nearly intact but her shoes were gone. The Doctor sighed in frustration and shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers. "Ridiculous. If these are people who cared so much for their families, I can't believe nothing was done to retrieve these people and get them some help. For all the ambition Miros must've had to develop this project he certainly seemed to still give his family some priority."
"We can't demand he help them until we get you out of this mess," Tegan said as she put her weapon back in its holster.
"Agreed," Nyssa said in turn, but her eyes returned to the vent. "Perhaps they were unfamiliar with the instability the temporal flux created. The Doctor and I might be able to help them to develop a drug to incapacitate them long enough to bring them out of this awful place."
Tegan pointed at the remains of a meal some twenty yards away from them. "If they do that, they better be able to get to all of them at once; I don't think they're just eating Ecosian chicken."
They resumed walking, the lights activating steadily in front of them. Nyssa looked up an hour or so later when the Doctor's hand fell on her shoulder. He was not looking at her, merely seeking guidance as his eyes fell to the ground as they moved. Tegan remained ahead of them, slowing her pace subtly and looking for the next set of crew quarter doors as well as the threat posed from around and now perhaps above them. She hoped the grating over the vents was as intact as it seemed. It had only been a few months since the research base was to have become operational so she had little worry that they would have crazed ex-scientists dropping down like snakes from the trees through worn out grate. Still, she was tired and wired enough herself to appreciate the security of a locked door and a hot meal. She didn't speculate on what the sleeping arrangements would be tonight but she would do what was needed and they would come to terms later. "Nyssa, how far have we gone?"
Nyssa kept walking but retrieved the ground navigation unit from the bag she carried. "Just about about 24 kilometers. We've made good progress but remember that 70 kilometer distance we were given was on a direct vector, not the distance we would have to cover through the corridors. Doctor, I think it's time we stopped. You'll need your rest for the remainder of the journey."
The Doctor was smiling but to himself as he lifted his head to meet Nyssa's firm gaze. He'd been to more planets than he could count, encountered more beings than he could recall, and on all of them – that -- tone of voice in humanoid females seemed the same. Not that he would've argued regardless, not without a very good reason, or in the case of Nyssa, not without facts she did not possess. Her eyes were compassionate, her tone once again regal and commanding while so terribly polite. He wondered, however, if she would have used it on any other of his regenerations. The third one, yes, he realized; Jo Grant had often done so. The first one, not likely. The second one, yes, but he would've been to busy babbling to hear her, and his fourth not likely would she have at all or if she did, she would simply have been ignored until he dropped. He'd gathered a bit of wisdom from that sort of behavior; one occasionally had to make concessions to the mortal coil. He didn't answer her insistent recommendation, merely nodded, and let her lead him forward.
The door was the same, recessed into the wall and with a small window in it. This set of rooms was another like the first that was ready for occupants but unoccupied. The food units were stocked but the décor was a dull gray that was nevertheless a great deal brighter than the corridor outside. They fell into their usual routine, Tegan preparing a filling meal from ingredients she was becoming more accustomed to, and Nyssa preparing the rooms then seeing to the Doctor as he rested on the dark green couch. She injected him with the drug twice but then Tegan heard the soft hiss twice again and turned to see Nyssa inject his calves this time, then work her strong, thin fingers into the stiffened muscles. Already half-way into a healing trance, he seemed unaware of her actions as she knelt before him and stood a few minutes later.
Tegan looked up from the plates as she filled them from the skillet, having thawed and cooked several pieces of the turkey-sized bird that seemed a staple of the Ecosian diet. "Well?" Her voice barely carried to her friend's ears.
"He'll make it there. I'll turn up the thermostat."
"All right, but turn it back after he's asleep."
Nyssa's eyes widened slightly. "Why?"
"Because I'll stay with him tonight after he's out. It's more effective and you'll never get to sleep if we have to have it as hot as I managed to have it get under that thermal blanket."
"How did you stand it?"
"I spent my summers in the Outback, a desert in my country. It's much cooler at night, so when it gets really bad, you do then and sleep during the day. You get used to it and if the clothes on Traken are all as heavy as yours you must be used to it being colder."
That was true, Nyssa thought, and the clothes weren't the only things that were more restrictive. If she had been able to assist the Doctor as Tegan was doing she doubted she could take the needed proximity in such stride. "All right, I'll waken him and we'll follow your plan."
An hour and a half later, Tegan was again watching the Doctor carefully as she eased down beside him and Nyssa guided the cover over them both, having just turned the thermostat back down. She returned a moment later with a small rectangular object that had a padded side which she pressed against the doctor's forehead until something on the front told her it had locked in place. "It's a delta wave inducer," she explained. "It should keep him asleep until we're ready for him to wake again."
Tegan nodded and began to lower herself to the bed where she had been propped up on her elbow watching Nyssa. She sat up slowly again and stripped the sweater off that she had worn the night before, reassured by the delta wave inducer that her own presence would remain undetected. Beneath it she wore a thin tank top that was keeping the slightly itchy sweater away from her more sensitive skin. She tossed the sweater over on the bunk above the one were Nyssa now lay and lowered herself again, carefully keeping a space between herself and the Doctor but finally reaching forward and taking his hand. It was frigid but warming slowly in her grip through the sheet and the color was returning to his face as she lay beside him, not sharing the pillow but with her head on her folded arm, shaking slightly in disbelief that the being beside her was some 900 years old. If she hadn't seen him regenerate, she never would have believed him no matter what else in the Universe she saw. In the semi-dark (none of them could bring themselves to turn off the lights) he looked young and still terribly exhausted. This was almost worse than his regeneration had been, but at least this was easier than carrying him. Tegan fell asleep to dreams of running on stairs that went up and down at the same time.
The warmth was amazing, welcome, penetrating, impossible... The Doctor was aware of little more than the heat and his own body as he repaired what he could of the damage done by the poison, the toxins produced by his own body in the form of the acid in his exhausted muscles, kept there by the restricted blood flow and the limited oxygen. Carrying the portable respirator would have been impractical and there was enough oxygen content on Ecosia Beta to get him through. The healing trance would let him get rid of the toxins and bring about the relief there. Nyssa must have found a way to raise his body temperature and injected it near his right hand. He retreated further, guiding and directing and providing the telekinetic energy to heal and consciously repair the damage. His heart slowed and his delta wave production suddenly quadrupled, drawing him down further, slowing his metabolism even more than it already was. His heart slowed again, the cold, oxygen-heavy air came to his lungs and found little blood had arrived to relieve it of its burden. He slid further down into the darkness, aware of little else but the healing that needed to be done. The delta waves grew stronger, taking him further, bringing peace, so much peace… too much.
The safety mechanism kicked in, without it he would go into the self-induced coma Time Lords were capable of but he would need time for that; the technique was inappropriate to the situation in any case. Nyssa didn't know; she had probably placed the delta wave inducer on him to help him rest. The combination of it and the healing trance was too suppressive. He fought his way back against its effects and semi-conscious tried to reach up and remove it. His right hand was hopelessly tangled in the covers and he used his left, feeling the brisk air touch him as he did.
The Doctor opened his eyes a moment later and looked at the bottom of the top bunk, preparing himself again to return to the healing trance with the delta wave inducer removed. His eyes moved to the ceiling and slowly down to the top bunk across from him; it was then that he noticed, of course, it was empty and dully wondered where Tegan was, if she was awake and troubled by the chance she would have to kill any of the Ecosians. He would have to talk to her. She needed her rest in any case. The Doctor took a strained breath and turned to rise that he might seek her out.
He found her, of course, long before he'd thought, just as he rose to his right, still dazed from the added help of the delta wave inducer. Her hand holding his through the sheet, Tegan lay next to him, her face all but covered by the two blankets. Her body heat had created a veritable furnace beneath the thermal blanket but she was sleeping comfortably, her short dark hair mussed and slightly darker with sweat.
And he knew in an instant Tegan had been next to him last night as well.
The Doctor lay still in the darkness, sorting through feelings he had suppressed for more decades than he wanted to admit, not simply of latent desire or passion but confusion over this intimacy, the thing that Rassilon said was one of the great disruptors of intellectual achievement. A Time Lord must never become involved, must never deeply care about more than the mental exercise of solving the equation or situation in the most logical way possible, nor should he or she be distracted by the emotions of others.
Or were they overreacting, both Rassilon and himself?
Tegan had not come to his bed but to his aid, had not come for pleasure or intimacy but to provide for him what science could not. It was science, at the moment, which had failed him… and Tegan had come to come to be here with respect to his feelings and discretion; without Nyssa's small oversight, he may never have known. Was he now being illogical to reject her care because of the ancient notions of a man widely rumored to have been a misogynist and a narcissist? What opinion of others could the man hold if he thought himself fit to set forth the rules that guided the interactions of those whose achievements made them also Lords of Time? And what sort of man gave guidelines that told them to sit idle as billions perished again and again.
And aside of the Gallifreyan equation -- this was Tegan, who -- thrown in to the bizarre world of their first encounter, having little to trust at his regeneration -- had still defied the authorities and saved his life, the same Tegan who had survived the Mara and allowed him to become part of her mind to help fight the ancient evil, the Tegan who had had enough compassion for him that she had walked into a ship full of Cybermen in order to warn him of their presence. How could he now be so disturbed by the close presence of her sleeping body, inert and exhausted beside him yet the source of the warmth that would enable him to heal? Had their positions been reversed, would he have not done the same? Tegan wanted nothing from him but to rest well, anything else he was dealing with came from his own inhibitions. For long moments he lay half-risen and chilled, the possessor of a mind that was supposed to be guided by logic, but had been so insulated from emotions as most understood them that a mere act of the caring he often preached had befuddled his senses and proprieties. Indeed, finding her at his side was nothing less than one of the small, beautiful moments he had spoken of so passionately to the Cyberleader. The conclusion was simple: the logic of his stalled emotions was flawed.
The Doctor lowered himself to the bed and closed his eyes. Tegan's scent filled him when he did, fueled by the generous warmth, and instead of it making him ill-at-ease to have her so near, logic now bade him to let it bring him more rest, let it bring him humility – to accept that for all that science could do – only the human body and human heart would see him through this ordeal. He could've have had no better companions for this journey through darkness and the sudden brightness their struggle had just brought his soul. Tegan's warm breath traveled over his shoulder and mingled with his own as he turned toward her and fell into a secure and dreamless sleep, his hand now returning her grasp, at peace not merely with her presence but the ancient demons that would have kept him from appreciating it.