As the TARDIS flew through the Time Vortex, the Doctor was using the sonic screwdriver on Martha's phone while she watched and I flew. Figures that he gets to play around while I do all the hard work.
"There we go! Universal Roaming. Never have to worry about a signal again." The Doctor said throwing the phone back to her. She caught it one handed and looked at it.
"No way! But it's... too mad! You're telling me I can call anyone, anywhere in Space and Time on my mobile?!" Martha asked unbelieving.
"Long as you know the area code." He told her. She gave him a stunned look and the Doctor smiled at her. "Frequent Fliers' privilege." Martha smiled at him. "Go on. Try it." Martha began to dial something when the TARDIS suddenly jolted throwing the three of to the floor. I got up and looked at the monitor to see it flashing red.
"Distress signal!" I told them. "Locking on!" I activated a switch on the console. "Might be a bit of..." another violent jolt sent us all flying again. Suddenly, all was still and we sat up. "Turbulence. Sorry!" I called to them. The Doctor got up and helped me up before running towards the doors.
"Come on Martha! Let's take a look!" the Doctor told her and we stepped out. I looked around at what looked like an engine room, which was glowing red from the extreme heat.
"Whoa! Now that is hot!" The Doctor said when he stepped out.
"Whoa! It's like a sauna in here!" Martha said taking off her jacket.
"These are venting systems." I said overlooking some of the equipment. "Working at full pelt. Trying to cool down wherever we are."
"Well! If you can't stand the heat…" The Doctor joked before walking towards a heavy-duty door and opening it. We walked through it and looked around. "Well, that's better!"
"Wonder where and when we are." I said looking around. Suddenly two men and a woman came running towards us from the opposite direction looking very hot.
"Oi! You three!" one of the men called to us.
"Get out of there!" the woman ordered.
"Seal that door! Now!" the man ordered. The Doctor and I shared stunned and confused looks before the two men quickly sealed the door just after Martha stepped out.
"Who are you? What are you doing on my ship?" the woman asked us.
"Are you police?" one of the men asked us.
"Why would we be police?" The Doctor asked them.
"We got your distress signal." Martha told them.
"If this is a ship, why can't I hear any engines?" I asked them.
"It went dead four minutes ago." The captain told us.
"So maybe we should stop chatting and get to engineering. Captain." One of the men told her.
"Secure closure active." The computer called out.
"What?!" the captain asked as a loud clang was heard from behind her.
"The ship's gone mad." One of the men said. We watched as another woman was running door the corridor to us only this time the doors were slamming shut just behind her.
"Who activated secure closure? I nearly got locked in to area 27." The new woman told us as the closest door slammed shut locking us into the area. "Who are you?" The Doctor went to answer, but Martha cut him off.
"He's the Doctor, she's the Hunter and I'm Martha. Hello." She said sounding distracted. She began to walk forward almost as though she'd been possessed.
"Impact projection: 42 minutes." Martha was headed for a small window that appeared to have golden light shinning in.
"We'll get out of this. I promise." The captain told us.
"Doctor… Hunter…" Martha called to us.
"Forty-two minutes 'til what?" the Doctor asked her.
"Doctor! Hunter! Look." Martha called to us. The Doctor and I ran over and looked out of the window with her. My eyes widened at the sight of a burning sun too close to the ship we were in for comfort.
"Forty – two minutes until we crash into the sun." the captain told us. The Doctor ran away from the window to her and grabbed her arm.
"How many crew members on board?" he asked her sounding panicked.
"Seven, including us." She told him.
"We transport cargo across the galaxy. Everything's automated. We just keep the ship…" one of the men told us.
"Call the others, I'll get you out!" the Doctor ordered running back towards where we came from.
"What's he doing?!" the new woman asked.
"No! Don't!" the captain called to him, but it was too late. The Doctor opened the door to get back to the TARDIS. It had become so hot where we'd come from, the pure force knocked the Doctor backwards off his feet making him yell as he fell. Martha and I automatically came to his aid finding he was alright. One of the crew members shut the door, dressed in breathing apparatus, whilst the others crowded us.
"But our ship's in there!" The Doctor told them.
"In the vent chamber?" the second woman asked us. The crew member who shut the door took off their breathing apparatus to reveal a woman. She stood beside the dear and read off the gauges.
"It's our lifeboat!" the Doctor told her.
"It's lava." The second man said.
"The temperature's going mad in there! Up 3000 degrees in ten seconds, and still rising." The second woman told us.
"Channeling the air. The closer we get to the sun, the hotter that room's gonna get." The first man told us.
"We're stuck here." Martha said with contempt.
"So? We fix the engines, we steer the ship away from the Sun! Simple! Engineering down here, is it?!" the Doctor asked as we began running down a corridor.
"Impact in 40.26."
The Doctor, followed by the rest of us, ran down a set of stairs before stopping suddenly, bemused.
"Blimey! Do you always leave things in such a mess?" the Doctor asked them.
"Oh my god!" the captain said.
"What the hell happened?!" the second man asked. We walked over to what looked like a completely wrecked engine. Wires, springs and casings were all over the place, steaming. We all walked around the machinery, surveying the damage.
"Oh, it's wrecked." The first man said.
"Pretty efficiently too. Someone knew what they were doing." The Doctor said before wandering over to a computer terminal attached to the wreckage.
"Where's Korwin? Has anyone heard from him or Ashton?" the captain asked looking at her crew.
"No." the second man asked.
"You mean someone did this on purpose?" Martha asked as the captain ran over to an intercom system.
"Korwin? Ashton? Where are you?" she asked them. No response. "Korwin, can you answer?!" she asked again, but she still didn't get a response. She left the intercom and didn't look at anything in particular. "Where the hell is he? He should be up here!" The Doctor was scanning to find out where we were as behind him the crew was rushing about, trying to find their two crew members and repair the ship.
"Oh! We're in the Torajji system! Lovely!" he said happily. I moved to him to see the screen readout showing a system of planets circling a huge sun. "You're a long way from home, Martha. Half a universe away." He told her before leaving the terminal.
"Yeah. Feels it." She said sarcastically.
"And, you're still using energy scoops for fusion? Hasn't that been outlawed yet?" The Doctor asked her and the crew shared a look.
"We're due to upgrade next docking." She said walking away from the Doctor. I narrowed my eyes at her. "Scannell, engine report." She ordered. Scannell walked over to the computer terminal I was at and he looked it over with everyone looking over his shoulder.
"No response." Scannell said before running over to the wrecked engine.
"What?!" she asked angrily.
"They're burnt out." Scannell said looking over the wires. "The controls are wrecked. I can't get them back online."
"Oh come on! Auxiliary engines! Every craft's got auxiliaries!" The Doctor said taking off his glasses and looking at them.
"We don't have access from here. The auxiliary controls are in the front of the ship." The captain told us.
"Yeah, with 29 password sealed doors between us and them. You'll never get there in time." Scannell told us.
"Can't you override the doors?" Martha asked slightly put out.
"No. Sealed closure means what it says. They're all dead-lock sealed." Scannell told us and I sighed with a sarcastic smile on my face.
"So a sonic screwdriver's no use…" The Doctor said.
"No sonic anything." I corrected him.
"Nothing's any use. We've got no engines, no time, and no chance." Scannell told us.
"Oh listen to you! Defeated before you've even started! Where's your Dunkirk spirit?!" The Doctor asked them before turning to the captain. "Who's got the door passwords?"
"They're randomly generated. Reckon I know most of 'em. Sorry. Riley Vashti." The second man introduced.
"Then what're you waiting for Riley Vashti, get on it." The Doctor told him.
"Well, it's a two-person job." Riley told us before going and fetching what looked like a huge magnetic clamp and a huge backpack. "One, it takes to answer the questions, and the other to carry this." He explained putting the kit on his back. "The oldest and cheapest security system around, eh captain?"
"Reliable and simple, just like you, eh Riley?" the captain asked him.
"Try and be helpful, get abuse. Nice!" Riley said sarcastically with a smile on his face.
"I'll help you." Martha said taking the clamp from him. "Make myself useful."
"It's remotely controlled by computer panel. That's why it needs two." Riley told her before turning and heading away from the group with Martha behind him.
"Martha." I called to her and she turned to me. "Be careful. Keep your eyes open."
"You too." She said smiling. She turned and followed Riley away before a male voice came over the intercom.
"McDonnell? It's Ashton." He told the captain and she ran back over to the intercom.
"Where are you? Is Korwin with you?" she asked him.
"Get up to the med-center NOW!" Ashton ordered nor answering her question. McDonnell left the intercom and ran off.
"Suppose that leaves you with the repairs." I told Scannell before following the Doctor and McDonnell to the med-center past Martha and Riley who were setting up for their attempt at opening the doors.
"Impact in 34.31."
In the med-center, a man was thrashing about in agony on a bed by a stasis chamber with his eyes tight shut as two people tried to restrain him.
"Korwin! What's happened?! Is he OK?!" McDonnell asked the man and woman as the Doctor ran to the foot of the bed and I tried to help them.
"Oh God! Help me! It's burning me!" Korwin told us.
"How long's he been like this?!" McDonnell asked.
"Ashton just brought him in." the woman told him as the Doctor got his sonic out and began to scan Korwin.
"What are you doing?!" McDonnell asked panicking.
"He's just scanning him." I shouted to her over Korwin's shriek of pain.
"Sonic impulse." The Doctor told us.
"Don't be so stupid, that's my husband!" McDonnell told us pushing past Ashton to the head of the bed.
"And he's just sabotaged our ship!" Ashton said and we looked at him confused.
"What?!" McDonnell asked him confused and angry.
"He went mad. He set the ship to secure closure, then he set the heat pulse to melt the controls." Ashton explained.
"No way! He wouldn't do that!" McDonnell denied.
"I saw it happen, Captain." Ashton told him as the Doctor finished scanning Korwin.
"Korwin?" the Doctor called to him. "Korwin, open your eyes for me a second."
"I can't!" Korwin said through the pain.
"Yeah, course you can. Go on." The Doctor said.
"Don't make me look at you! Please!" Korwin begged. The Doctor and I shared a look before he moved down the bed again and he picked up a dart gun off a try close by.
"Alright, alright, alright. Just relax." He showed the gun to the medic. "Sedative?"
"Yes." She answered. The Doctor pressed the gun up against Korwin's neck and administered the sedative. Korwin gave a final shout before falling silent and still as the Doctor replaced the gun onto the tray.
"Rising body temperature, unusual energy readings…" The Doctor said telling us his findings from his sonic before pointing at the chamber. "Stasis chamber. I do love a good stasis chamber. Keep him sedated in there. Regulate the body temperature." The medic looked at him questioningly, but rushed to do what he said. "And, just for fun, run a bio-scan and tissue profile on a metabolic detail."
"Just doing them now." She told us.
"Oh, you're good. Anyone else presenting these symptoms?" The Doctor asked her.
"Not so far." She answered.
"Well, that's something." The Doctor said.
"Will someone tell me what is the matter with him?!" McDonnell ordered from her husband's bedside.
"Some sort of infection. We'll know more after the test results. Now, Allons-y, back downstairs. Ay! See about those engines. Go." The Doctor ordered and Ashton left McDonnell remained static and the Doctor gave her a look. "Ay! Go." She left reluctantly and the Doctor looked to the medic. "Call us if there's news! Any questions?" he asked her.
"Yeah. Who are you?" she asked him confused.
"I'm the Doctor!" he told her before running out of the med-center.
"Don't mind him. Impending crashes and mysteries are kind of his thing." I told her before following the Doctor.
"Heat shields failing. At twenty-five percent. Impact in 32.50."
The Doctor and I were trying to help out in the engine room when the medic had called to inform us of what she found.
"Abi, how's Korwin doing? Any results from the bio-scan?" the Doctor asked her.
"He's under heavy sedation. I'm just trying to make sense of this data. Give me a couple of minutes and I'll let you know." She told us.
The Doctor and I were helping the mechanic trying to fix the engine when the Doctor called to Martha and Riley over the intercom.
"Martha? Riley? How're you doing?" he asked them.
"Area twenty-nine, at the door to twenty-eight!" Martha told us.
"You've gotta move faster!" The Doctor told them putting on his glasses and looking at the readout.
"We're doing our best!" Martha told him.
"Find the next number in the sequence: 313, 331, 367… what?" Riley read out loud.
"You said the crew knew all the answers." Martha said.
"The crew's changed since we set the questions." Riley told her.
"You're joking…" Martha said sounding slightly annoyed.
"379!" The Doctor said after running back to the intercom.
"What?!" Martha asked confused.
"It's a sequence of happy primes. 379." The Doctor told her.
"Happy what?" Martha asked again.
"Just enter it!" I shouted with the Doctor.
"Are you sure? We only get one chance!" Riley told us.
"Any number which reduces to one when you take the sum of the square of its digits and you continue iterating until it yields one is a happy number. Any number that doesn't, isn't. A happy prime is a number which is both happy and prime, now type it in!" he ordered before turning to me and McDonnell. "I dunno, talk about dumbing down! Don't they teach recreational mathematics anymore?"
"They probably do, but from my time as a human I know that most don't like mathematics." I told him. "At all."
"We're through!" Martha called out happily.
"Keep moving. Fast as you can." The Doctor told them before taking off his glasses. "And, Martha, be careful. There may be something else on board this ship." The Doctor and I shared a look for a moment.
"Any time you wanna unnerve me, feel free!" Martha told us.
"Will do, thanks." The Doctor told her before switching the comm. off and walking towards me.
Sometime later, the Doctor was looking at a piece of broken equipment, with the remaining crew and I standing around, watching him
"We need a backup in case they don't reach the auxiliary engines in time. Come on! Think! Resources, what have we got?!"
"Doctor? Hunter?" Martha called to us over the comm.
"What is it now?" The Doctor asked her.
"Who had the most number ones, Elvis, or the Beatles? That's pre-download." Martha asked us.
"Elvis." The Doctor told her.
"No! The Beatles!" I corrected him.
"No! Wait! Um… um…" the Doctor looked in physical pain before slapping the back of his head. "Argh! What was that remix? Um… I don't know! I am a bit busy!"
"Isn't there someone else you can ask?" I asked her.
"Fine. I'll ask someone else!" Martha asked sounding put out.
"Now, where was I? Here comes the sun. No, resources. So, the power's still working." The Doctor listed off.
"But the generator's going." I pointed out with a smile on my face. "If we can harness that…"
"Ah!" he said with a large grin on his face.
"Use the generator to jump-start the ship." McDonnell said catching on.
"Exactly! At the very least, it'll buy us some more time." The Doctor said.
"That… is brilliant." She said slightly stunned.
"I know! See! Tiny glimmer of hope!" the Doctor said and the rest of the crew were now smiling, knowing that there may have been a way out.
"If it works." Scannell pointed out.
"Oh, believe me. You're gonna make it work." McDonnell told him. Scannell walked off, looking dejected.
"That told him!" The Doctor told her as the rest of us smiled.
"Impact in 29.46."
"Doctor, these readings are starting to scare me." The medic said over the comm.
"What d'you mean?" the Doctor asked her and we all listened intently.
"Well, Korwin's body's changing! His whole biological make-up, it… it's impossible." She told us. "This is med-center. Urgent assistance requested. Urgent assistance!" The Doctor and I shared a shocked look before we began to run to the med-center.
"Stay here! Keep working!" the Doctor called back to them as we ran.
"Urgent assistance!" the medic called out once again.
"Abi. They're on their way." we heard the young mechanic tell her over the comm.
"What's happening to you?" we heard over the comm.
"Burn with me." We heard a deep, threatening voice over the comm. "Burn with me." We continued running until I heard everyone behind me slow. I turned to see McDonnell and Scannell had followed us.
"Captain?!" Scannell called out.
"I told you to stay in engineering!" The Doctor told them both.
"I only take orders form one person round here." Scannell told him and the Doctor looked shocked.
"Oh, is he always this cheery?" the Doctor asked McDonnell. Before she could answer we heard Abi screaming in fear and pain. We started running again.
"Doctor, what were those screams?" Martha asked us.
"Concentrate on those doors! You've gotta keep moving forward!" the Doctor called to her as we ran.
"Impact in 27.06."
We burst through the plastic sheeting that acted as a door to the med-center. Scannell was already there, looking around.
"Korwin's gone…" McDonnell said slightly shaken as Scannell turned around and stopped in his tracks.
"Oh my God…" Scannell said and we turned to follow his gaze to see a charred, black shape on a wall in the shape of a person with one hand in the air.
"Tell me that's not Lerner." Scannell almost begged.
"Endothermic vaporization." The Doctor said as he rubbed his hand on mark. "I've never seen one this ferocious. Burn with me."
"That's what we heard Korwin say." Scannell said.
"What?! D'you think… no way! Scannell, tell him! Korwin is not a killer! He can't vaporize people! He's human!" McDonnell told us.
"She said he was changing." I said as the Doctor walked to something up off the floor. "His biological makeup was changing."
"His Bioscan results… internal temperature, one hundred degrees! Body oxygen replaced by hydrogen! Your husband hasn't been infected, he's been overwhelmed!" the Doctor told her and she snatched the Bioscan results out of the Doctor's hand.
"The test results are wrong!" she shouted at him.
"But what is it though? Parasite? Mutagenic virus? Something that needs a host body. But how did it get inside him?!" The Doctor asked.
"Stop talking like he's some kind of experiment!" McDonnell asked getting hysterical.
"Where's the ship been? Have you made planet-fall recently?" The Doctor asked McDonnell, but she just gave him a blank look. "Docked with any other vessels? Any kind of external contact at all?"
"What is this? An interrogation?!" McDonnell asked him.
"We've got to stop him before he kills again." The Doctor told her.
"We're just… a cargo ship." She told him turning away from the Doctor.
"Doctor, if you give her a minute…" Scannell said for her. The Doctor looked on as Scannell faced McDonnell.
"I'm fine. I need to warn the crew." The Doctor took the Bioscan results and puzzled over them again as McDonnell walked over to the intercom. "Everybody listen to me! Something has infected Korwin. We think…" she paused and the Doctor looked at her. "He killed Abi Lerner. None of you must go anywhere near him, is that clear?"
"Impact in 24.51."
The Doctor continued to pour over the Bioscan results. McDonnell and I sat with Scannell stood close by.
"Is the infection permanent? Can you cure him?" McDonnell asked the Doctor as I took the results from him to look them over.
"I dunno." The Doctor told her seriously and I sighed. Even I could see the reading were worse than what he said.
"Don't lie to me, Doctor. Eleven years we've been married. We chose this ship together. He keeps me honest. So I don't want false hope." She told him. The two of us shared a look and I nodded to him. This was one thing he shouldn't lie about.
"The parasite's too aggressive. Your husband's gone. There's no way back. Sorry." The Doctor told her. She nodded, taking it in and I took her hand in empathy.
"Thank you." She said quietly taking her hand from mine. The Doctor sprang to life again walking towards where we sat.
"Are you… certain nothing happened to provoke this? Nobody's working on anything secret, 'cause it's vital that you tell me." The Doctor told her.
"I know every inch of this ship. I know every detail of my crew's lives. There is nothing." She told him and he stared at her harshly.
"Then why is this thing so interested in you?" he asked.
"I wish I knew…" she told him.
"Doctor, we're through to area 17." Martha told us.
"Keep going. you've got to get to area one and reboot those engines." The Doctor told her.
"Heat shield failing. At twenty percent."
"We need to get the engine going again. Now." I said standing again. We all ran from the med-center back to the engine room when Martha's voice fell over us.
"Doctor! We're stuck in an escape pod off the area seventeen airlock." The Doctor and I stopped in our tracks. "One of the crew's trying to jettison us! You've gotta help us!"
"Why is this happening?" McDonnell asked us.
"Stay here! I mean it this time!" The Doctor told them as he ran off with me behind him. "Jump start those engines!" We ran at full pelt to try and get to Martha on time. When we appeared through the door from area 17 we saw Ashton standing in front of a door. "That's enough!" The Doctor ordered him. Ashton turned to look at him. "What do you want? Why this ship? Tell me!" Rather than tell us, Ashton turned back and put his fist through the keypad. We were at a stand-off as the pod Martha and Riley were in was preparing to jettison. "Come on. Let's see you." Ashton advanced on us until the Doctor and he were nose to nose. "I wanna know what you really are…" Ashton lifted his hand to his visor and my hand went into his on instinct. Suddenly, Ashton doubled up and backed away from us, however it only lasted a few seconds before he came straight at us.
"Airlock sealed." Ashton pushed past us and left area 17. The Doctor skid over to the nearest comm. unit.
"McDonnell! Ashton's heading in your direction! He's been infected, just like Korwin!"
"Korwin's dead, Doctor." Scannell told us.
"The pod!" I reminded the Doctor. The Doctor looked up and we skid to the airlock door, where we could see Martha, just a few feet away, tapping on the glass, and calling to us with a smile on her face although we could hear nothing.
"I'll save you!" The Doctor called to her and she called his name again. I moved away from the window and leaned against the door. "I'll save you! I'll save you!" he told her over and over.
"Impact in 17.05." I moved to the intercom and called the engine.
"I need a spacesuit in area 17, now!" I told Scannell and McDonnell.
"What for?" Scannell asked and I looked to the Doctor.
"We are getting them back." I told him before going back to the airlock door.
When Scannell arrived with a suit very similar to the one he wore when we met the devil.
"I can't let you do this." Scannell told him once he had already dressed.
"You're wasting your breath, Scannell You're not gonna stop me." The Doctor told him.
"You wanna open an airlock in flight on a ship spinning into the sun. No-one can survive that!" Scannell said.
"Oh, just you watch." The Doctor told him.
"If we can survive the devil the sun should be no problem." I said handing the Doctor the helmet.
"You open that airlock, it's suicide. This close to the sun, the shields will barely protect you." Scannell said.
"If I can breach the magnetic lock on the ship's exterior, it should remagnetize the pod. Now, while I'm out there, you have got to get the rest of those doors open. We need those auxiliary engines." The Doctor told him.
"Doctor, will you listen! They're too far away, it's too late!" Scannell told him before turning to me. "Hunter, make him see reason."
"I'm not gonna lose her." The Doctor told him.
"She's our friend and I won't lose another one." I told him as the Doctor put the helmet on. He walked past us to the airlock door, which slid open. He walked inside and I closed the door behind him watching him.
"Decompression, initiating. Impact in 12.55." it said as the air left the room he was in. "Impact in 11.15." the computer warned as he walked to the airlock door. "Heat shield failing. At ten percent."
"You better go back to help. We are going to need those engines sooner rather than later." I told him as I watched the Doctor press a button on a keypad, which opened the exterior door. I closed my eyes slightly due to the brightness of the sun, but recovered quickly to see him grab hold of the frame and began to clamber onto the outer hull of the ship. I watched with baited breath as he was almost swept away a couple times, before he got himself in the right position and swung his hand out to try and bring them back.
"Come on!" I heard him say over the comm. "Go on my son!" he suddenly said and I smiled breathing a sigh of relief.
"Don't give up now!" I told him. "You're almost there!" I heard him scream out of pain and strength before struggling back into the airlock. "Yes!" I said excitedly with a grin on my face as the pod slowly but surely headed back to its docking point. The Doctor got to his knees and looked over the bottom lip of the airlock and out to the sun.
"It's alive…" he whispered.
"What is?" I asked him.
"It's alive?..." he said again. "It's alive!"
"Doctor, get back here! What's alive?" I asked him again.
"Impact in. 8. 57." In the airlock, the Doctor removed his helmet still on his knees and he looked to be in a lot of pain with his eyes closed shut. "Airlock recompression completed." I ran into the airlock, grabbed the Doctor and pulled him back into the corridor of the ship and fell on my knees in front of him.
"Talk to me. What's wrong?" I asked him as Martha and Riley ran to us. The Doctor fell on top of me and I lowered him gently to the floor.
"Doctor! Doctor!" Martha said before she crouched beside him. "Are you OK?"
"Help me flip him over." I told her. She did as I said and helped me flip him onto his back. As we did the Doctor opened his eyes to reveal a bright light coming from them.
"Stay away from me!" he told us sounding angry before closing his eyes again and writhing in pain. I pulled Martha back as McDonnell joined us.
"What's happened?" she asked.
"It's your fault, Captain McDonnell!" the Doctor told her and I gave her a strange look.
"Riley! Get down to area 10 and help Scannell with the doors. Go!" she ordered and he did as he was told.
"You mined that sun! Stripped its surface for cheap fuel! You should have scanned for life!" the Doctor told her and I remembered his words.
"It's alive." I said under my breath.
"I don't understand." McDonnell said.
"Doctor, what are you talking about?!" Martha asked him.
"That sun is alive! A living organism! They scooped out its heart, used it for fuel, and now it's screaming!" The Doctor told us.
"What do you mean? How can a sun be alive? Why's he saying that?!" McDonnell asked starting to panic.
"Because it's living in me." He told us.
"Oh my god…" she said once she realized what he was saying.
"You get it now?!" I asked her angrily going back to the Doctor's side.
""Humans! You grab whatever's nearest and bleed it dry!" The Doctor yelled at her. "You should have scanned!"
"It takes too long! We'd be caught! Fusion scoops are illegal." She tried to cover herself.
"You've got to freeze me, quickly!" he told me grabbing onto my arm.
"I will." I assured him.
"What?!" Martha said rushing to our sides as I tried to help him us.
"Stasis chamber." I told her.
"You gotta keep me… below minus 200. Freeze it out of me!" he told her before screaming. "It'll use me to kill you if you don't! The closer we get to the sun, the stronger it gets! Med-center! Quickly! Quickly!" he cried out.
"Martha grab his other arm." I told her and together we half carried half dragged the Doctor towards the med-center.
"Impact in, 7.30."
As we broke through the plastic sheeting to the med-center he screamed. Martha helped me sit him down before we went to the stasis chamber and grabbed the instruction manual.
"We can do it!" Martha said mostly to herself.
"We have to." I told her quietly.
"Hunter, where are you?!" The Doctor called out and I went back to him as he reached out blindly.
"I'm here! It's alright! I'm here!" I grabbed his hand before picking him back up. "It's me! Here I am! Stasis chamber, minus 200 Martha!" I reminded her. I saw McDonnell just standing back staring at us. "Get over here and do something useful!" she helped me lift the Doctor onto the stasis chamber bed.
"No, you don't know how this equipment works! You'll kill him! Nobody can survive those temperatures!" McDonnell told us.
"He's not human! If he says he can survive, then he can." Martha told her as I held the Doctor's hand.
"Let me help you then!" McDonnell tried. I pulled my gun on her and she backed away quickly.
"Don't you think you've done enough damage to us?" I asked her.
"Ten seconds. That's all I'll be able to take. No more!" he told us. "Hunter!"
"I'm here." I told him.
"It's burning me up. I can't control it. If you don't get rid of it," he told me before his voice turned dark. "I could kill you. I could kill you all." His voice went from dark to sounding like he did when he'd gotten scared as a child. "I'm scared! I'm so scared!"
"I know, love." I told him. "We're going to make this right and you'll be okay."
"It's bloody killing me! Then what'll happen?!" he asked me.
"You're not going to die today. You hear me?" I asked him.
"You have to tell Martha… about the process… when we're about to die…" he told me.
"Shhh… quiet now." Martha told him. "Cause that is not gonna happen. You ready?"
"No!" he said. I looked up Martha and nodded. She left his side and pushed the lever that slid him back into the stasis chamber. I moved to her side and typed in 200 before pressing the button to start the process. Inside the chamber, the Doctor screamed continuously.
"Heat shields failing. At five percent."
When the stasis chamber hit minus 70 degrees, it shut off. I desperately tried turning it back on as the Doctor whimpered in pain.
"No! Hunter! Martha you can't stop it! Not yet!" The Doctor shouted at me.
"What's happened?!" Martha asked me.
"Power's been cut in engineering." I said hitting the machine.
"But who's down there?" Martha asked.
"I don't know!" I shouted at her.
"Leave it to me." McDonnell told us before running from the room as the Doctor let our another round of screams.
"Impact in 4.47."
"Thanks computer, like I need a countdown!" I shouted at it knowing it wouldn't help. Martha stepped up next to me trying to get the machine to work.
"Come on! He's defrosting." She told me.
"Not helping." I told her as the Doctor cried out in pain again.
"Hunter! Martha! Listen!" Martha peered inside the chamber as I worked. "I've only got a moment. You've gotta go!"
"No way!" Martha told him.
"Now I know you've gone mental!" I shouted.
"Get to the front! Vent the engines! Sun particles in the fuel! Get rid of them!" He told us.
"I am not leaving you!" Martha told him.
"You've got to! Give back what they took!" he ordered.
"Doctor!" Martha shouthed.
"This is the only time I'm following your orders when you're like this. You understand me?" I asked without expecting an answer.
"Please! Go!" The Doctor screamed as I ran out the door.
"Martha!" I called back to her.
"Impact in 4.08."
Martha and I ran throughout the ship towards the front as quickly as we could. "Impact in 2.17. Survival element protection. Zero percent."
"Such an optimist this computer." I said sarcastically.
"Hunter! Martha!" the Doctor called to us over the coms pulling us to a stop.
"Doctor!" Martha called to him.
"What the bloody hell do you think you are doing?" I asked him.
"I can't fight it. Give it back or… Burn with me. Burn with me, Hunter!" the Doctor told us and I felt my blood run cold.
"Not a chance in hell. Keep fighting Doctor!" I told him before continuing my run.
"Impact in 1.21." the Doctor screamed over the intercom where the whole ship could hear it as Martha and I ran.
"Impact in 1.06." Martha and I ran into the area to see the boys looking at the computers.
"Vent the engines. Dump the fuel." Martha told them and they both looked questioningly at us.
"What?"
"Sun particles in the fuel. Get rid of them." I ordered and they still stared. "Now!" the boys sprang into action and headed to two identical walls and began turning dials which released the fuel.
"Come on Doctor, hold on." Martha whispered. I made my way to the fuel dispersal dial and waited until all the dials had been turned before twisting it. The ship lurched causing us all to be flung around. However, the readout showed that the fuel had been successfully leaked out of the bottom of the ship. We held onto whatever we had our hands on as the Doctor screamed over the intercom and the ships fuel fell back into the sun. As more and more fuel was released, the lurching got more and more violent, until Martha was thrown from where she stood. I reached for her and pulled her to me to make sure she stayed safe.
"There! How're we gonna fly?!" Scannell asked scared.
"Impact averted. Impact averted." Riley, breathing heavily from his spot on the floor just looked around as though he couldn't believe it. Martha and I peeled ourselves from the wall as Scannell popped up to his feet.
"We're clear! We've got just enough reserves!" With beaming smiled the boys embraced as I ran out of the room. Martha smiled at the boys before realizing I wasn't in the room.
"Doctor…" she turned and ran after me. When I got to him he was pulling himself to his feet and, even as weak as he must have been, lifted me clean off the ground as we shared a brief laughter of happiness. Once he put me down, I pulled his face to mine and kissed him as though he was the very air I needed to breathe.
"Don't you ever do that to me again. You understand me?" I asked him and he just smiled down at me.
"I'll do my best." He told me before looking behind me. I turned to see Martha and smiled at her. She walked to us and we all shared a group hug.
Apart from the distinct lack of crew members, the ship was still sailing as though nothing had happened. Riley and Scannell stood admiring the TARDIS while the Doctor and I walked around it checking to see that she was ok.
"This is your ship!" Scannell asked shocked.
"Compact! Eh?" the Doctor asked grinning at them. "And another good word, robust! Barely a scorch mark on her."
"But she'll make sure we feel that scratch once we leave." I warned him and he just grinned down at me.
"We can't just leave them drifting with no fuel." Martha told us concerned about the boys.
"We've sent out an official mayday. The authorities will pick us up soon enough." Riley told her.
"Though how we explain what happened…" Scannell said at a loss for words.
"Just tell them." The Doctor told him opening the doors of the TARDIS. "That sun needs care and protection, just like any other living thing." Scannell nodded as the Doctor stepped inside with me behind him. When Martha stepped into the TARDIS and shut the door behind her. She joined us at the console, beaming.
"So! Didn't really need you in the end, did we?!" she joked with the Doctor. However, rather than his usual beaming self, the Doctor looked sad and distant. "Sorry. How're you doing?" I glanced at him took the reins.
"What do you say to ice skating on the mineral lakes of Cuhlhan. Fancy it?" I asked her smiling. Instead of smiling, Martha looked disappointed.
"Whatever you like." She told me. The Doctor looked at her and put his hand in his pocket.
"By the way, you'll be needing this." He pulled a TARDIS key on a long chain out.
"Really?!" she asked unbelievingly.
"Frequent Flier's Privilege." He told her. She cupped her hands and he slowly fed it into her hands and looked at her properly. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it." He said giving her a weak smile while he continued to tinker with the TARDIS. Martha suddenly started feeling about her person.
"Oh no! Mum!" she said drawing our attention back to her as she dialed. "Me again! Sorry about earlier. Over emotional, mad day! Yeah! Tonight. Do my best. Um, just remind me, what day is it again? Right. Course. I'll be round for tea. Roughly. Anyway, gotta go! See you later! Love you!" Martha hung up smiling at us as we took off.