Jack hurried in with two soldiers. They had managed to find a container on the ship's deck, but there wasn't a great deal of ice or snow out there despite them being in the ocean North of Alaska. It had not got dark despite it having to be late even in local time. He went in with what little snow and ice they had found and was greeted by a horrific site. Donna was wringing her hands with tears flowing down her face as Martha was trying to support the Doctor by restricting the amount his head was twisting and bouncing off the hard vinyl of the couch that he was laid on.
"Oh God?" Jack knew enough to know that if he was convulsing then it was serious. The risks of long term damage to his brain through the infection had escalated quite significantly. He helped Martha pack the ice around his body to try to bring his body temperature down. They put it around his arms and his shoulders and around his neck and to his groin and his hips to the points where his blood flow was close to his skin so that the coolness would hopefully spread throughout his body. The ice was melting quickly though as it was put against his skin hot with the raging fever.
"That's it Doctor," Martha paused to caress his head as the convulsion seemed to taper out. She didn't think they had got his temperature down at all yet, but he had stopped thrashing. She checked his breathing. She gave him the oxygen back again as he was snatching at the air. She got her stethoscope out and listened to his chest. He was starting to sound more congested. "How far out is the Valiant?" Martha asked Jack.
"Six or seven hours?"
"That's too long," Martha stated. She wasn't sure she meant to say that out loud but she had and it sent a renewed fear through both Jack and Donna.
"What do you need?" Jack asked her.
"He needs oxygen. More than I can give him. I think he's going to end up needing to be ventilated before this is over and I don't have the equipment to do that. I need to be able to give him as much medical assistance as I can and this isn't a medical lab. There is nothing here to make him better it was all about making him sick. He's really… damn," Martha paused as the Doctor tensed again. "He's still far too hot."
The second convulsion didn't last as long as the first, but that just gave the impression that the Doctor was weakening further. "We need to cool him down or there is no way he is going to last until the Valiant gets here."
"Can we move him?" Jack checked.
"Not far, he's really unwell here, Jack," Martha warned him. She didn't want any of them to think that at this point saving his life and getting him well again was the most likely outcome of this.
"It is cold up on deck," Jack told them. "We're in the middle of the Artic."
"Okay," Martha nodded. She unhooked the drip so that they could move him. The bed that he was on was not designed to be moved anywhere, but Jack didn't plan to carry him on a stretcher. He wrapped his arms around him and gentle eased him up. He was so hot Jack could feel the heat from his sweat soaked skin radiating from him. "Watch his head," Martha warned as the Time Lord's head rocked backward as Jack lifted him. The Captain adjusted his grip on him to make sure that he was well supported. He was a little heavier than he expected but he was far too limp. He hung from Jack's arms.
As they passed through the area where the three aliens who had done this were being held under armed guard Martha paused. "Carry on up," Martha told Jack and Donna. Donna led the way making sure there was nothing that was going to hinder Jack or trip him up while he had such a precious cargo. She could not believe she had taken him shopping and then sent him for cake and he had ended up like this. She was not a medic and she was not a scientist but even Donna could see that he was in a bad way. She could read people and she could see that Martha was barely holding it together and that she was terrified for him.
"Is he deceased?" Coljai asked Martha plainly. "If he is deceased then we need the antibodies from his blood stream before he is disposed of."
"Disposed of?" Martha shook her head slightly. "That man is my friend. He is not being disposed of and he is not deceased. He is fighting it. We are taking him up to the surface into the air to attempt to bring his temperature down."
"The higher his temperature the more significant his immune response."
"I am not interested in using him as a factory for antibodies," Martha told Coljai firmly. "I am interested in limiting the damage done to him by this virus."
"You are only wasting your time and prolonging his suffering. No man can survive the amount of infection that he has been given," Coljai advised Martha.
"I am not going to give up on him," Martha stated plainly. "You may be right. I am not going to hide that I am very worried about him and that he is very sick, but I am not going to leave him to die without trying. I need you to answer some questions."
"What if we don't?" Another of them asked.
"Then I will make sure that if he does die that he is immediately cremated and that any antibodies in his system are destroyed and that nothing is gained by his death," Martha advised them.
"Ask your questions," Coljai offered. He seemed to be more pragmatic about it and to have at least some concern for the Time Lord even if that concern had not led him to prevent the horrific act of introducing and infection to study the response.
"I understand that he was struck prior to you taking him. Has he regained consciousness from the head injury that you inflicted and then lost consciousness again because of illness or has he been unconscious throughout?" Martha asked needing to gain some additional information. She was assuming that he was only convulsing because of his fever but he had been knocked out by a violent blow to his head.
"He did regain consciousness," Coljai offered.
"And did he display any symptoms of head injury when he did?"
"He complained of head pain but there were no obvious signs of head injury, though I am not entirely sure of the symptoms and signs that would be displayed in his species."
"And yet you are willing to give him a deadly virus?" Martha asked and shook her head slightly. "You know what the saddest thing about all of this is?" Martha checked with them. Coljai looked to her. "That man who is clinging to the edge of life at this moment is probably one of the most accomplished scientists that you could come across. I have seen him do incredible things. If you had asked him for help he would have given it and instead the chances are that you have killed him and you will gain nothing."
Martha left them to dwell on that. At least she now knew that he had regained consciousness between being hit and becoming ill. He had declined very quickly with the virus in that case. It was less than 24 hours since he was taken and he was desperately ill. She went up onto the deck.
Jack had moved into an area where they were sheltered from the harsh ocean winds that were whipping across the open deck of the ship and where they were away from the risk of any of the waves crashing over the side of the ship. Within the lab the ground hadn't seemed to be affected by the waves, but up on the deck they could feel the movement of the ship. It was rolling and rocking over the significant waves on the ocean. It wasn't still stormy but it certainly wasn't calm either.
Donna was holding the drip up so that it continued to run into the Doctor's arm while Jack was sitting on the deck. As much as they needed to cool the Doctor down he didn't want him lying on the harsh metal of the ship. He was not protected and he could have ended up quickly getting frost bite if his skin was against the heat drawing metal. He had taken his warm weather jacket off and had laid it out so that the Doctor was sitting in his lap and was resting against him. Jack had sat him up a bit more as when he'd laid him flat his breathing had start to rattle in the back of his throat.
Salt spray blew in off the ocean and froze in the air so that it was like being peppered by little shards of glass. It was freezing up there. Jack's wrist computer indicated that the air temperature was – 8 degrees Celsius. Martha came up into the open fastening her own massive fur lined UNIT issued parker so that she was protected. She wanted to cool the Doctor down but she didn't want the rest of them to end up with hypothermia. As she knelt down and removed her glove to check the Doctor's temperature she could feel that it was working.
"Did you get any information from Coljai?" Jack asked Martha.
"He confirmed that he had regained consciousness between being hit on the head and being infected," Martha commented. "That is good in the sense that it means that he is less likely to be carrying a very serious head injury. It is worrying in the speed and the virulence of the virus and how quickly it has made him this ill. He is not being pumped full of the viral cells now which means that he is going to have a chance to try and fight it, but he has already been convulsing. We have no way of knowing how much damage has already been done. There is a medical bay on the Valiant. We need him there as quickly as we can."
"His breathing isn't so good." Jack advised and nodded understanding how serious things were.
"I think we have some extra leeway with him because of his bypass," Martha suggested. "But he is very sick indeed. I don't have the facilities here to find out how sick he actually is."
"How are we going to get up onto the Valiant?" Donna asked.
"A helicopter," Martha advised. "They will send a helicopter down to get us and transfer us up there."
"Is there no way we can go and meet it?" Donna asked. "I am not sure how it works, but what about the helicopter that brought us here. Can't we use that to go and meet the Valiant?"
Jack glanced at Donna and then at Martha. "If they can get fuel out to that chopper then it could take a couple of hours off the wait," he offered.
"Then we need to do it," Martha advised. She had her stethoscope out and listened to the Doctor's chest. She listened to his hearts and to his breathing and then she felt for a pulse in his wrist. The pulse in his wrist was significantly weaker than it should be. "Come on, Doctor," Martha breathed as she caressed his head. She put the back of her hand to his cheek and then to his chest. He still felt warm to her which meant his fever remained significant. He should have felt cool.
It was ten more minutes before the Doctor started to shiver. His skin was still marked with a fine glimmer to sweat but he was shivering against Jack. Jack wrapped his arms around him, holding his hands so that they didn't get too cold as they had to bring his core temperature down further. Sitting outside on the deck of the ship was not the ideal place for him to be as there was no control on how cool it was and how quickly he lost the body heat of fever. Martha knew he was resilient to the cold when he was fit. He'd been practically frozen on the Pentallion but he came through that. Martha could only hope that strength carried him through this as well.