Chapter Nine
Donna leaned against the TARDIS' doorframe, gazing up in fascination as the giant let a droplet of itself fall into the Doctor's waiting jam jar.
"Plato, hello again, mate!" he said delightedly, a huge grin on his face. He looked up from his prize to examine the Atlanteans. "I need a volunteer."
"What for?" Jerom's voice was laced with suspicion.
"Oh, knowledge, assistance, a spot of blood…" said the Doctor airily.
"Blood?" The Atlanteans backed away a little. Then Kaelah stepped forward.
"I'll do it. It's my fault, after all-"
"Of course it isn't," retorted Susan, taking her by the elbow and leading her inside the TARDIS. Donna heard the girl gasp as she saw the huge interior and smiled. Her own reaction had been a little different, having seen the inside first. Emerging after the Doctor landed in London, that was when she got the it's-bigger-on-the-inside shock.
The Doctor already had his head stuck in his magic lab cupboard, and vaguely Donna wondered if Susan had stuck some Doctor-treats or something in there. He began throwing random things out of it again.
"No… not this… not- how did that get in here?"
Donna narrowly dodged a flying rubber duck and sat beside Kaelah. The girl looked very out of place in the green and gold interior with her blue skin and white hair. She also looked rather scared.
"You okay?" she asked kindly as Susan went to help the Doctor find whatever it was he was looking for. Kaelah nodded numbly.
"Is it always this weird, your life?"
"Since I met him, yeah," admitted Donna. "But you think it's weird for me, just wait 'till you hear Susan's story. She's a lot older than she looks, and she was brought up with this kind of lifestyle."
"Still lookin' good, though," said Susan as she crossed the lab to another cabinet. "A blow-up hammer, Grandfather?" she added in a bemused voice, pulling out the item in question with some difficulty.
"Must've been the Master," muttered the Doctor, still rummaging in the cupboard with his bum sticking in the air. "My we've had some cowboys in here… oh, yes!" He retreated from the cupboard, clutching a magnifying glass. He held it up to his eye, enlarging it bizarrely. "Perfect."
He scrambled to his feet and grinned, holding out a hand. "Microscope." Susan handed him one. He eyed it suspiciously.
"It's real, don't worry."
"He smiled even wider and put Plato and his jam jar underneath. Making lots of oohing and ahhing and mmm-hmming sounds, he scribbled in a notebook, waved his sonic screwdriver at his specimen, made more noises and scribbled some more in his notebook.
"Okay, Kaelah, I need some blood now."
Kaelah shrank back a little.
"Oh, you'll be fine, I only want a little." He took a syringe from his first-aid kit and told Kaelah to roll up the sleeve of her tunic. "Look away if you want, it always helped Susan."
"No, that was you," said Susan, her arms folded.
The Doctor ignored this and proceeded to take some of Kaelah's blood. It was a reddish-purple colour.
"Interesting…" Sticking a small plaster on the girl's arm, he put his new sample under his microscope and began to scribble more notes, waving his screwdriver as he did so. After a while, he straightened up.
"Any ideas, then?" asked Donna.
"Plenty," replied the Doctor. "Doesn't necessarily mean they're good ones, mind, though, being me, they probably are."
"Modest as ever," muttered Susan
"Of course."
"Are they normally like this?" whispered Kaelah to Donna. Donna whistled softly.
"You have no idea." Then she looked up at the Doctor. "So, what are we gonna do?"
The Doctor was back in his cupboard. He emerged to reply. "We should be able to use the heart of the TARDIS to re-charge Atlantis' batteries, so to speak. Of course, it won't be the energy in its purest form-"
"Why not?"
"Oh, just the little snag that no living being in the Universe could handle such power for very long, not even a Time Lord." He was quiet for a moment, staring into the distance. Susan and Kaelah looked at him curiously, but Donna just sighed quietly to herself. She'd be willing to bet anything that he was thinking about Rose.
"Anyway," he continued after a moment as if nothing had happened, sticking his head back in the cupboard. Somehow, he managed to inject those three syllables with bundles of energy and enthusiasm. "We can still give Atlantis plenty of power. Renewable, too. Can't beat some renewable power."
"And where's the "renewable" bit going to come from?" asked Susan, who had a feeling she already knew.
"Me, of course!" beamed the Doctor, proving Susan right. "If I can get myself some of the regenerative properties in my blood, I should be able to create a similar effect in the energy bar I'm giving Atlantis-"
"Time Lords only get twelve shots at regeneration," Susan pointed out.
"True, but mixed with Time Energy…"
Susan looked at him through narrowed eyes for a moment.
"You're making this up as you go along, aren't you?" she said eventually.
The Doctor gave her his most winning smile. "Improvisation, it's what I do best!"
Donna wondered if Susan's eyes always rolled, and she just hadn't noticed before.
Doctor!
"Yeah, just a sec!" yelled the Doctor, somehow squeezing more of himself into the cupboard. Well, it was a TARDIS cupboard.
Heart… Failure…
"Just hang on!"
"Doctor!" It was Sani's voice, coming from the control room. Donna and Susan ran out to meet her.
"It's Jerom," she said breathlessly. "He just… collapsed, he's…" she swallowed. "He'd dead!"