Chapter 7 – Patient

Martin stood up from where he had leaned over the bin and wiped his mouth on a swatch of gauze.

Smith gave him a puzzled look and scratched the back of his neck. "Are you ill?"

"No." Martin straightened his tie and jacket and tried to regain his composure.

"Certain? You look a bit pale."

"I'm fine," Martin lied.

"Nothing to do with…" he pointed to the clutter of surgical gear, "surgery, is it?"

"No," Martin said emphatically, his face screwed up in consternation.

"Right." Smith gave him a concerned look. "Not quite the Martin Ellingham I remember from before," he whispered to himself.

Martin ignored his comment, dropped the soiled gauze into the rubbish and gazed quizzically at Smith. "What are you going to do with…" he pointed at the humming apparatus, where liquid flowed over the creature in the clear tube, "Whatever it is."

"That, yes… I suppose I'll have to take it back where it belongs."

Martin went back to his patient, changed his surgical gloves and prodded at the hole in her arm. Strangely the huge ballooning of the hand, wrist and forearm, had collapsed to near normal proportions. He took a flexible saline bottle and rinsed out the incision. A few nasty looking bits of gray tissue came out so he pried the incision open with retractors and finished the job. He didn't see any more debris from the object once hidden inside.

He then placed a small tube to drain the site and put simple sutures at incision in the back of her hand. As Martin was doing this, he saw Smith peering at the thing in the tube, tapping at it, where tendrils pulsed. "Just what is it? Do I need to call Public Health?"

"Nah!" Smith said. "I really doubt they'd have any idea. Probably wind up dissecting the unfortunate creature."

"Unfortunate? You said not long ago that the thing's a parasite!"

Smith smiled. "Nope," he said snapping his lips closed explosively. "Poor Donna just got in the way. Wrong biology. You saved its life, you know."

"Its life?" Martin exploded. "It nearly killed your friend! Saved its life… I suppose you dread using antiseptic too!"

Smith smiled his odd little smile. "Long after the human race is gone bacteria and viruses will still be thriving. They were here before Man and will be here long after. Even when the planet is destroyed by your sun going nova, there will be pockets of earth bacteria clinging to rocky fragments – but they always did have an escape plan."

"Man?"

"No. Bacteria. But they've always planned for the future; taken the long view." Smith sniggered at the look on Martin's face. "You think I'm mad, don't you?"

Martin sniffed. "I know so."

"We can discuss my mental status some other time, don't you think?" Smith pointed to the prostrate woman on the table. "Hadn't you better tend to your patient?

Martin went back to bandaging the hand and wrist and then put an elastic wrap about the limb to compress the forearm. He tided up the table, ditching the instruments in the dirty tray, while the waste went into the biological hazard bin.

Smith had gone back to fiddling with the strange device of pumps and tubing, making a strange sound though his teeth – sort of a whirring, whistle, with glottal stops thrown in.

Martin washed and thoroughly dried his hands then pulled a blanket up about Donna Noble, tucking it around her for warmth. He then shouted at Smith. "Must you do that? Make the odd noise? It's irritating!"

Smith grinned. "Just telling her she'll be fine."

Martin pointed to Donna, still passed out on his examination table. "The patient is over here."

"And the other one is here," Smith said and rubbed the clear tube. A tendril of the thing stopped squirming about and put itself quite carefully against the inside of the tube opposite Smith's hand. "There, there," he said, stroking the tube.

Martin came over and looked hard at Smith. "You have gone total and utterly Bodmin."

"You haven't believed a word I've said, have you?" Smith told Martin, then grabbed his hand and pressed it tightly against the tube.

Martin fought to get his hand back but as he touched the smooth cool outside of the Perspex container, he felt the strangest disorientation. Somehow, he was inside the tube looking out – looking out at two gigantic deformed creatures, with extremely large heads, glaring eyes and dark holes in their faces filled with fierce looking teeth. "God!" he yelled, jerking his hand back and then rubbed his arms as gooseflesh jumped out all over his back and arms. "My God!"

Smith caressed the tube. "There, there. He didn't mean to scare you," he purred. He looked over at Martin. "Her name is, well… I don't think I can pronounce it. No human can."

"That thing has a name?"

"Of course. All creatures do you know. And her name is…" he tipped his head sadly, "unpronounceable, sadly by humans."

"Right," Martin sneered at the madman.

"Oh, before I forget, always a lot going on in my head, you see, she thanks you."

"She… erh, it, thanks me?"

"Says she didn't mean to cause any harm. When she realized she was in the wrong… being… she tried to reach the spinal cord so she could communicate directly with Donna, but…"

"Yeah, that was not possible." Martin sighed. None of this made any sense to him. Yet the humming machinery was apparently keeping the thing alive and it was no longer agitated and thrashing about inside the transparent tube.

Smith put his fingers on the tube, closed his eyes, and muttered something in a low voice. Then in a high squeaky voice he said, "Thank you for saving me. Now I will sleep. Goodbye Doctor Ellingham."

The way in which Smith spoke raised the hair on his neck. "Ok. Now you'll say that was it… her speaking."

Smith's hand fell from the machine, as he yawned and blinked his eyes rapidly. "Not speaking actually, more of a mind to mind transfer." He rubbed his face and stumbled back. "Took a lot out of me."

Martin grabbed Smith and steered him to the visitor's chair, where Smith grabbed the arms and began deep breathing.

"Sorry, Doc! The neural equivalents weren't very exact. I had to approximate the words." He scratched his chin. "Most of what I got was mostly emotional feelings. Oh and she says you have very large hands, for a human. She quite likes them."

"Rubbish!"

"All the same," Smith went on. "She does think that you have quite a skill. Oh, yes…" he rubbed his neck nervously. "Don't know quite how to say this or quite what she meant, but…"

"Go on."

Smith smiled his all teeth smile and his eyes flashed happily. "She told me that you should… ahem… tell Louisa, whoever that is, how you feel about her. Said she could tell you're quite keen on her. Says not to waste any more time."

"What? Martin had turned to the patient, the human one, but that comment brought him up short. "That thing read my mind?"

Smith nodded his head up and down.

Any possible further discussion was interrupted by Donna Noble starting to stir and moan. "Doctor?" her voice came out slurred.

Martin and Smith responded as one. "Yes?" and gave each other a confused look.