42
Her head was pounding and she could feel sweat dripping into her mouth. With a grimace Chris turned her head so that it wasn't lying against grating and then sat up, cursing her luck. She grimaced at the rush of blood that was sent through her body and blinked her eyes open.
"I am never, ever, ever consenting to that again," Chris grumbled as she took stock of her new location, "I understand that you were afraid because he was shutting you out but there was no reason to force me inside my own head so that you could take control Rain."
Oh shut up, Rain grumbled, we both know you weren't going to say anything on your own.
"That's not the point," Chris whined, rubbing her forehead in hoped of getting rid of the headache that she had, "I'm not built to not have control over my body, there's a reason they banned psycho-grafts. If I stayed in my mind for too much longer I would have been trapped there."
Well, I'm not going to apologize, Rain grumbled and Chris let out a deep breath.
"Great, now I'm having a fight with myself," She stood up and took a better look around the room, noting that she was in what looked like a venting area. And if the increase in temperature was any indication she knew exactly who would be arriving soon.
As if on cue the Tardis started to materialize right before Chris' eyes. She grinned and moved to hide on one side of the box, knowing that The Doctor and his companion would not be able to see her when they exited.
A short time later the door to the Tardis opened and Chris saw the feet of the two occupants as they exited. She was surprised, however, to find four more tiny feet, only for The Doctor to yell at the occupant to get back inside. Who ever was there listened and the door to the Tardis shut.
"Who was that?" Chris wondered, more curious than in the mood to scare The Doctor, there was time for that later.
Even though it was not her intention both of the other occupants in the room jumped at the sound of her voice. She grinned and was startled by the hug she suddenly found herself in. Chris froze and her body took over, shoving the hugger back and sinking into an attack stance.
Chris, you've gotta stop doing that, Rain commented, startling the girl out of her state, You all need to get out of this room, now.
Chris shook her head before grabbing both Martha and the startled Doctor and tugging them out of the room. She had just managed to slam the door shut when four people ran up to them.
I'll apologize to Martha later, we've got forty-two minutes, Rain said to The Doctor and Chris couldn't help but grumble at her sudden helpfulness.
"Oi, you three!" One of the crew called, Chris couldn't quite remember their names, "Get out of there. Seal that door! Now!"
"Who are you?" An older woman yelled, "What're you doing on my ship?"
"Are you police?" A man asked as he pulled The Doctor away from the door.
"Why would we be police?" The Doctor asked as his eyebrows knit together.
"We got your distress signal," Martha told them, also confused by the question.
"If this is a ship, why can't I hear any engines?" The Doctor wondered, glancing between the four crew members.
"It went dead four minutes ago," a woman with shoulder length blonde hair told them, Chris vaguely remembered her being the captain of the ship.
"So maybe we should stop chatting and get to engineering," one of the men said, addressing the woman, "Captain."
"Secure closure active," The automated voice of the ship announced. Chris looked down the hall to see a woman running towards them, trying not to get trapped by the quickly closing doors.
"What?" The captain called, glancing at the speaker grating as though it would give her the answers to her current predicament.
"This ship's gone mad," another of the men said.
"Who activated secure closure?" the woman yelled as she passed the last door only seconds before it closed, "I nearly got locked into Area 27! Who are you?"
"He's the Doctor and I'm Martha," Martha said distractedly, noticing the inordinate amount of light coming through the single window. "Hello."
"Impact projection forty-two minutes," the automated voice called.
"We'll get out of this," the captain said, gripping the woman tightly to calm her panic, "I promise."
"Doctor!" Martha called and Chris quickly ran over to her, wanting to get a look herself.
"42 minutes until what?" The Doctor asked the woman who was definitely in charge.
"Doctor!" Martha yelled again, this time getting The Doctor's attention, he too raced over to look out the window. "Look"
"Until we crash into the sun," The captain said and Chris cringed at how despairing she sounded. She wished that she could give the woman some hope but knowing what happened was preventing her from even trying.
"How many crew members on board?" The Doctor asked, turning away from the window that Chris and Martha were still looking out of.
"Seven, including us," one of the men said, "We transport cargo across the galaxy. Everything's automated."
"Call the others," The Doctor ordered walking over to the door, "I'll get you out."
"What's he doing?!" someone called but Chris was too distracted by the sun to really pay attention.
It was the blast of heat that pulled Chris out of her head and brought he back to the situation that she was in. She wiped at the sweat covering her brown and turned to watch The Doctor who was glancing between the door and a member of the crew in concern.
"But my ship's in there!" The Doctor told them, slightly panicked.
"In the vent chamber?!" the captain questioned incredulously
"It's our lifeboat!" The Doctor told them
"It's lava," A crew member said, reading off from their equipment, "The temperature's going mad in there. Up 3,000 degrees in ten seconds and still rising. Channelling the air. The closer we get to the sun, the hotter that room'll get. We're stuck here."
"So, we fix the engines, we steer the ship away from the sun," The Doctor suggested before gesturing down a hall, "Simple! Engineering down here, is it?"
"Impact in 40.26." The voice called as Chris followed The Doctor with one last glance out the window.
The room that they entered was a mess. Chris could see the evidence of it being intentional, the clean cuts and discarded pieces. She carefully walked through the space, taking stock of what exactly had been destroyed.
There was a pipe that had been cut in half that led to the fuel valve, a cable was severed next to a dashboard. Chris didn't know the names of everything in the room but she knew enough about engines to guess at their uses.
"Blimey!" The Doctor said after taking his own look at the mess, "D'you always leave things in such a mess?"
"Oh, my God," One of the crew gasped but Chris was too busy in her attempt at cataloging to note which one.
"What happened?" Martha wondered,
"It's wrecked!" Another crew member exclaimed at the sight, their hand covering their mouth in shock.
"Pretty efficiently, too," The Doctor observed, "Someone knew what they were doing."
"Where's Korwin?" The captain of the ship demanded, "Anyone heard from him or Ashton?"
"No," another member of the crew replied, Chris really needed to learn their names.
The captain is Kath McDonnell, that man is Scannell, then we have Erina, and Riley, the other crew members are Abi, Korwin, and Ashton. Rain helpfully supplied.
Now you decide to be helpful? Chris admonished, I could have used this back with Eleven, y'know. Not you taking control of my fucking body.
I'm still not apologizing for that, Rain told her and Chris could just feel the other woman crossing her arms.
"Oh, we're in the Torajii system, lovely!" The Doctor said, breaking through Chris' conversation and drawing her attention back to the present, "You're a long way from home, Martha. Half a universe away."
"Yeah, feels it," Martha said absently, taking a glance around the room
"And you're still using energy scoops for fusion!" The Doctor exclaimed, missing the looks shared between the crew, looks that Chris caught, narrowing her eyes at the group. "Hasn't that been outlawed yet?"
"We're due to upgrade next docking," McDonnell evaded, "Scannell, engine report!"
"No response," Scannell responded after checking the engine
"What?" McDonnell demanded
"The controls are wrecked, I can't get them back online," was the man's reply as he examined the abundance of cut chords.
"Oh, come on! Auxiliary engines!" The Doctor suggested, removing his glasses, "every craft's got auxiliaries!"
"They can't access them from here, Doc," Chris cut in, "that would be too easy, and when are our lives ever easy."
"We don't have access from here," another member of the crew confirmed, "The auxiliary controls are in the front of the ship. With 29 password-sealed doors between us and them. We'll never get there on time."
"Can't you override the doors?" The Doctor asked, glancing at Chris with mild concern.
"No, sealed closure means what it says," Scannell told him, "They're all deadlock sealed."
"So a sonic screwdriver's no use," The Doctor mused looking to Chris for confirmation.
"Nothing's any use!" The unintroduced crew member griped, "We've got no engines, no time and no chance."
"Oh, listen to you, defeated before you've even started!" The Doctor admonished. Martha glanced at Chris who simply winked at the woman, "Where's your Dunkirk spirit? Who's got the door passwords?"
"They're randomly generated. Reckon I'd know most of them," A young man said, stepping forward, "Sorry, Riley Vashtee."
"What're you waiting for, Riley Vashtee?" The Doctor wondered
"It's a two person job," Riley informed the Timelord, "One to take this for the questions, the other to carry this. The oldest and cheapest security system around. Reliable and simple."
"Just like you, Riley," McDonnell teased, Chris grinned at Riley's reaction.
"Try to be helpful, get abuse," Riley grinned too, knowing that McDonnell meant it as a compliment, "Nice."
"I'll help you," Martha offered and Chris frowned slightly, "Make myself useful."
"It's remotely controlled by the computer panel," Riley explained to Martha as the companion took one of the parts for the locks. "That's why it needs two."
"Oi," The Doctor called, getting Martha's attention, "be careful."
"You too," Martha said with a glance to Chris who was still frowning, "Both of you."
"You're amazing Martha Jones, don't you ever doubt that," Chris called after the other woman, who simply grinned and shook her head.
"McDonnell, it's Ashton," A voice called over the intercom."
"Where are you?" McDonnell questioned, before asking after he husband, "Is Korwin with you?"
"Get up to the Medcenter, now!" Ashton demanded and without another thought, McDonnell took off, The Doctor and Chris quickly following her.
Chris waited outside the med bay while everyone else ran in. She didn't want to overcrowd the area and she was already drenched in sweat. She didn't want to admit that she was scared, bt she was. She knew that everything ended fine in this adventure but it was such a close call and she didn't want her being there to make anything worse.
You're such a baby, Rain complained and Chris groaned as she threw her head back.
"Seriously, what has gotten into you, Rain?" Chris asked the woman in her mind, "You've been really rude recently and I'm worried."
I'm fine, Rain argued before receding into Chris' mind so that the human couldn't talk to her.
When things seemed calmer in the other room Chris stepped in. She
"What's wrong with him?" McDonnell asked The Doctor.
"Rising body temperature, unusual energy readings," The Doctor mumbled, not answering McDonnell.
"Stasis chamber?" Chris asked, ignoring the shocked look she got from the occupants of the room. She shrugged and finger waved at them before looking back to The Doctor.
"I do love a good stasis chamber!" The Doctor cheered, grinning at Chris before turning and pointing at the chamber, "keep him sedated in there, regulate the body temperature. And just for fun run a bio-scan, a tissue profile, and a metabolic detail."
"Just doing them now," Abi informed The Doctor, shooting confused looks between him and Chris.
"Ooh, you're good!" The Doctor complimented, "Anyone else presenting these symptoms?"
"Not so far," Abi confirmed
"That's something!"
"What's the matter with him?" McDonnell asked, placing a hand on her husband's forehead before looking at The Doctor
"Some sort of infection," The Doctor replied, looking to Chris for some sort of confirmation, "We'll get the test results. Now, back downstairs, eh, see about those engines."
Chris saw that McDonnell wasn't listening to The Doctor's order and grabbed the woman's hand, "let's go check on that engine, keep your crew safe."
McDonnell nodded and Chris kept a tight grip on the woman's hand as she led her out of the medical bay.
"Call us if there's news," The Doctor ordered, preparing to follow Chris and the others "Any questions?"
"Yeah," Abi called, stopping The Doctor just as he was about to leave, "Who are you two?"
"I'm the Doctor," The Doctor told her, "and that lovely lady is my friend Chris."
"Heat shield failing at 25," the system announced, "Impact in 32.50."
"Chris, you alright?" The Doctor asked once they were back in the engine room.
Chris glanced at The Doctor and smiled, "I'm fine, just trying to stay out of everyone's way."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the woman and she sighed, "What, I said I'm fine. Now, if you don't get to work with those engines none of us will be fine. I'm gonna check up on Abi, you continue to save the day, hotshot."
With a frown The Doctor did as he was told, missing the look of pain that crossed Chris' face as the woman tried to talk to Rain once again. With a sigh, she walked over to the comm to talk to Abi.
"Hey, Abi, it's Chris, you don't know me but I'm with The Doctor, how's Korwin doing?" Chris said resting her forehead against the wall.
"He's under heavy sedation," Abi told the girl, "I'm just trying to make sense of this data. Give me a couple of minutes and I'll let you know."
"Alright, stay safe, Abi," Chris replied before messing with the controls so that she could talk to Martha, "Martha Jones, Riley Vashti, how you guys progressing over there?"
"Area 29, at the door to 28," Martha informed and Chris grinned.
"Alright, girl, keep it up." Chris glanced at the clock which conveniently held the countdown time, "scratch that, if you could speed it up a bit?"
"We're going as fast as we can," Martha replied and Chris shook her head.
"I know, you're amazing Martha," Chris grinned.
"Hey!" Riley called indignantly.
"Get back to work, Riley," Chris retorted
"Find the next number in the sequence: 313, 331, 367." Riley read out to Martha, Chris looked up, feeling a presence next to her to see The Doctor"What?!"
"You said the crew knew all the answers!" Martha called, disbelieving
"The crew's changed since we set the questions," Riley explained.
"You're joking," Marth groaned
"379," The Doctor told them.
"What?" Riley called
"It's a sequence of happy primes," The Doctor explained.
"Happy what?" Riley asked
"Just enter it!" The Doctor yelled
"Are you sure?" Martha wondered, "We only get one chance!"
"Any number that reduces to one when you take the sum of the squares of its digits, and continue iterating until it yields one, is a happy number. Any number that doesn't, isn't. A happy prime is a number that's both happy and prime Now type it in!" The Doctor glanced at McDonnell as she climbed back into the room, "I dunno, talk about dumbing down, don't they teach recreational mathematics any more?"
"Be nice Doctor," Chris scolded before turning her attention to the comm again, "Oi, Martha, be careful, there may be something else on this ship."
"Any time you wanna unnerve me, feel free," Martha commented.
"Will do, thanks," The Doctor quipped, earning himself an elbow from Chris, who in turn got a glare from The Doctor.
"I said be nice, now get back to work."
"Fine," The Doctor grumbled, before moving on to a set of controls that Chris recognized.
"Chris, Doctor, these readings are starting to scare me," Abi's voice came over the comm a little later, making Chris curse.
"What d'you mean?" The Doctor asked when he got to the control.
"Korwin's body's changing," Abi told the timelord, awed by her findings, "His whole biological make-up, it's impossible."
"Abi," Chris said, shoving The Doctor out of the way, "Listen to me, you need to get out of there. Korwin's not himself, you know this, just get out of there now!"
"This is Medcentre, urgent assistance requested, urgent assistance!" Abi said mere moments later. Chris cursed before turning to The Doctor that was already ordering people around.
"Stay here!" The Doctor yelled as he ran off to assist Abi, "Keep working!"
"Abi, it's Chris, you need to get out of there. The Doctor is on his way but please, get out of there."
"Urgent assistance!" Abi repeated, not hearing Chris who ran off then, hoping that somehow, something would change.
"Abi, they're on their way,"
"Captain!" Scannell called, catching up to the trio
"I told you to stay in engineering!" The Doctor reminded the crew member that had followed them to the med bay.
"I only take orders from one person," Scannell told The Doctor before taking the lead
"Is he always this cheery?" The Doctor questioned before he followed after Chris who was already taking the lead from Scannell, knowing there was no time to waste.
She pushed herself, hoping to make it to the med bay before anything happened, when she heard Korwin speaking. Chris pushed past Scannell and kept running as fast as she could to make it on time.
A bloodcurdling scream brought Chris to a standstill. Breathing heavily and ignoring the tremor in her hands Chris carefully continued forward. She did her best to ignore the guilt and fear that was turning her stomach as she entered the medbay to find it empty of both Abi and Korwin.
Chris' attention was immediately caught by the outline of the ship's medic. She stared at it, the pain she felt nearly enough to bring her to her knees. As it was Chris was having a hard time breathing as she tried to slow her heart rate and bring everyone's attention to the tragedy in front of her.
"Korwin's gone!" Scannell noted as the other three entered the Med bay. They all looked around with the vague hope that they'd find the infected man when Scannell noticed that Chris was just staring at the wall. He noticed the outline of his friend and took in a deep breath, drawing the attention of the others to the wall, "Oh, my God, tell me that's not Lerner."
"Endothermic vaporization," The Doctor noted, tracing a finger delicately above the outline of Abi, not wanting to disturb or disrespect her, "Horrible. I've never seen one this ferocious."
"Burn with me," Chris murmured, drawing everyone's attention to her, "That's what Korwin said."
"What? You think?" McDonnell exclaimed, understanding what Chris was insinuating, "No way! Scannell, tell them! Korwin is not a killer. He can't vaporize people! He's human!"
"His bio-scan results," The Doctor murmured, moving onto the results that Abi had been talking about, "Internal temperature 100 degrees, body oxygen replaced by hydrogen. Your husband hasn't been infected. He's been overwhelmed."
"The results are wrong," McDonnell insisted, snatching the paper that The Doctor had been looking at from the Time Lord's grip.
"What is it? A parasite, mutagenic virus?" The Doctor wondered, staring at the ceiling as though it would give him the answers he sought, "Something that needs a host body, but how did it get inside him?"
"Stop talking like he's some kind of experiment!" McDonnell ordered The Doctor who was not paying the distressed woman any attention.
"Where's the ship been recently?" The Doctor demanded to know, "docked with any other vessels? Any sort of external contact?"
"Is this an interrogation?" Scannell snapped, seeing that the timelord's questions were distressing his friend more than necessary.
"We've gotta stop him, before he kills again," Chris spoke up from where she was standing, observing the group, "McDonnell, Kathy, you can't keep these secrets to yourself anymore, you're endangering the lives of your crew."
"We're just a cargo ship," McDonnell told them, running a hand down her face.
"Doctor, if you give her a minute," Scannell pleaded, seeing how stressed his captain was at the moment.
"I'm fine, I need to warn the crew," McDonnell shrugged Scannell's concern off, moving to the com to warn her crew and Martha, "Everybody, listen to me. Something has infected Korwin. We think" She paused for a moment, "he killed Abi Lerner. None of you must go anywhere near him.
Is that clear?"
"Understood, Captain," Riley Vashti replied over the com.
"Erina, get back here with that equipment," Ashton's demanded over the comm.
"24.51," The computer said, adding a level of stress that really wasn't needed.
"Is the infection permanent?" McDonnell asked, "Can you cure him?"
"I don't know," The Doctor said, glancing over to Chris who was staring at the bio scan unseeingly.
"Don't lie to me, Doctor," McDonnell snapped, "we chose this ship together. He keeps me honest. So I don't want false hope."
"The parasite's too aggressive," The Doctor said after a moment, "Your husband's gone. There's no way back. I'm sorry."
"Thank you," McDonnell sighed closing her eyes briefly
"Are you certain nothing happened to provoke this?" The Doctor continued after a moment, "Nobody's working on anything secret? Cos it's vital that you tell me."
"I know every inch of this ship," McDonnell assured The Doctor, "I know every detail of my crew's lives. There is nothing."
"Then why's this thing so interested in you?" The Doctor wondered.
"I wish I knew," McDonnell shook her head, trying to figure out why this would be happening to her crew.
"Doctor, we're through to Area 17," Martha announced, jogging a memory for Chris whose head shot up eyes wide.
"Shit," Chris yelled suddenly, taking off much to everyone's surprise. She made her way back towards the engine room, hoping that she could just change something.
Chris, no, Rain suddenly said, stopping Chris in her tracks, It's too late.
What do you mean it's too late? Chris asked, Rain, I have to try.
Chris, I can feel Ashton, it's too late. Rain insisted and Chris bowed her head. Erina is gone too.
"No," Chris said brokenly, "I couldn't even do anything."
You can't give up now, Chris, Ashton is heading towards Martha.
Chris nodded to herself and took off towards where Martha had gone initially, hoping to make it there before anything happened. She'd failed to save two lives, maybe she could prevent The Doctor from going through the pain that he goes through with the sun.
"Doctor," Martha's panicked voice came over the com and Chris pushed herself to run faster, "Chris! We're stuck in an escape pod off the Area 17 airlock! One of the crew's trying to jettison us! You've gotta help us!"
How do you get to area 17? Chris asked, coming up to a fork in the hallway, Which way do I go?
Left, Rain replied and Chris followed the direction, taking off once more.
Martha stared in horror as Ashton appeared in the circular glass panel of the hallway. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach and her heart started racing as the system announced that the pod was going to be jettisoned for the third time.
"Tell me you can stop it," Martha demanded of Riley while her attention remained focused on the possessed crew member.
"Jettison held," The system announced and Martha felt her shoulders relax a tad.
"Thank you," She murmured gratefully.
"Jettison reactivated," Martha tensed again, her heart racing in terror.
"Come on!" Riley urged, "Sierpinski sequence! This'll get him."
"Jettison held," The system announced, "Escape Pod stabilized."
"You're pretty good," Martha praised, sharing a smile with Riley.
Chris entered area 17 to see Ashton pressing buttons on the pod control and without a second though she ran towards him. Only for the infected man to smash the controls before she reached him. Chris let out a frustrated yell before tackling the man to the ground and quickly turning to the controls.
"That's enough!" The Doctor yelled, gaining Ashton's attention while Chris' remained on the now broken controls. She panicked when she saw that the jettison was initiating again.
"What do you want?" The Doctor demanded as Ashton approached him, deeming The Doctor to be the bigger threat, "Why this ship? Tell me!"
"Jettison activated," The system announced and Chris leaned her head against the metal for a moment before pressing the button to activate the comm.
She turned to watch The Doctor as Ashton walked away from the man.
"McDonnell," Chris said "Ashton's heading in your direction. He's been infected just like Korwin."
"Korwin's dead, Chris," McDonnell told the woman who closed her eyes briefly in defeat.
"Scannell, I need a space suit brought to area 17 immediately," Chris ordered, her voice calm despite the panic that she was feeling, "no complaints just please, do it."
"I'll save you!" Chris heard The Doctor yelling behind her and she closed her eyes, bowing her head, "I'll save you."
"Impact in 17.05" The system announced.
"Sorry, I'm so sorry," Chris breathed, not seeing The Doctor turn to glare at her.