Chapter 3: 17:05
"What did he mean by this is your fault?" Said Scannell.
McDonnell didn't respond, she was simply kneeling down by the frost covered body that had been her husband an hour beforehand.
As she reached out to touch his face, Scannell quickly grabbed her arm. "Don't touch him! He's infected. We don't know how it spreads."
The Captain was holding back tears. "You killed him."
"It wasn't Korwin any more. There was no saving him, The Doctor said so."
"You don't know that!" She snapped. "None of us do! He recognised me when I spoke!"
"What are you gonna do? Sit there 'till we burn? 'cos we need you now!"
It was true that things were heating up in every sense of the word. It was getting to the point where you could fry an egg off any metallic surface.
The Doctor's voice came over the intercom. "Scannell, I need to know how to boost the magnetic lock on the ship's hull around the escape pods."
"You need to operate the controls outside the ship." Said Scannell.
The Doctor was silent for a moment. "Why are the controls outside the ship?"
"I don't know, I didn't design it!"
"Right. Well... Just bring a spacesuit to area 17, NOW!"
"Well do what he says." Said McDonnell.
"Ashton's still out there."
"I'll deal with him." She replied, with a conviction that told him she fully intended to.
16:14
The interior of the escape pod was heating up much faster than the main ship. It felt more like a greenhouse in the middle of the Sahara. But Riley was strangely optimistic. The whole thing would split apart long before they could cook and they'd die a quick death in a few minutes time.
Through the solar shielded windows, they could see rivers of hydrogen rising from the sun, large enough to swallow up the earth several times over. Each one glowing white hot.
"The irony of space travel." Said Riley. "The prettier it is, the more likely it is to kill you."
"The Doctor will save us." Said Martha.
"No, it's too late." He shook his head. "Our heat shields will pack in any minute, and then we go into free fall. We'll fall into the sun way before he has a chance to do anything."
"You don't know the Doctor. I believe in him."
"You're lucky. I've never found anyone I could believe in."
Martha looked back at him. "No girlfriend... or boyfriend?"
"Job doesn't lend itself to stable relationships."
"Family then?"
"My dad's dead, and I haven't seen my mum in six years. She didn't want me to sign up for cargo tours. Things were said, and since then, all silent. She wanted to hold on to me, I know that. Oh, she's so stubborn." In the back of his mind, he'd always been thinking up ways to make amends with her the next time they made port. Now it seemed he'd never get the chance.
"Yeah, well, that's families." Said Martha.
"What about you?"
"Full works. Mum, Dad, Dad's girlfriend, brother, sister. No silence there. So much noise. Oh, God! They'll never know! I-I'll just have disappeared, and they'll always be waiting!"
"Call them." Said Riley.
14:30
"Ashton!" McDonnell called again. She'd led him right the way through the ship from the moment she'd found him. Now he was at the bottom of the steps that led to the med centre.
He looked up to see her disappearing through the door and went in after her, only to find her out of sight.
As he looked left and right, McDonnell leapt out from under a table and jabbed him in the stomach with a wooden pole. His still human sense of pain caused him to double over.
McDonnell spun round and whacked him on the back of the head, causing him to double further, before kicking him forward with the full fury of a woman scorned. He fell into the stasis chamber and she held him in place with the end of the pole, while she hit the button that activated the deep freeze.
She sat there, listening intently to the creature's agonised screams until the display read -273oC. Absolute zero.
That taken care of, she went to help the others.
13:47
Back in area 17, the Doctor was pulling on a spacesuit.
"I can't let you do this." Said Scannell.
"You're wasting your breath." Said the Doctor. "You're not going to stop me."
"You want to open an airlock on a ship in flight spinning into the sun! No one can survive that!"
"Just watch."
"Opening an airlock's suicide. This close to the sun, the shields will barely protect you."
"If I can boost the magnetic lock on the ship's exterior, it should remagnetise the pod. Now, while I'm out there, you have got to get the rest of those doors open. We need those auxiliary engines."
"Doctor! You're not listening. They're too far. You can't save them."
"I can't lose her." The Doctor stepped into the airlock.
Scannell looked at the screen by the door, indicating that decompression had begun. It also said that the shields were 10% above critical capacity. He rationally decided that the Doctor was a lost cause and went to try and save whoever was left.
12:55
It had taken Martha a lot of effort to make that call, during which she'd had to explain to explain exactly what the problem was to Riley.
"Hi Mum." She said as casually as she could manage. "Sorry about earlier."
"Is everything alright?" Said her mother.
"Yeah. I'm ok." Even if she were about to die chocking on a sandwich, she could never have explained it to her mum.
"Martha?" Her voice had given away that something clearly was the matter.
"Mum… You know I love you. Don't you."
"Of course I do. What's brought this on?"
"I never say it. I never get the time. But I really love you. Tell Dad Leo and Tish that I love them too." She felt the tears begin to spill down her face as she said this.
Francine knew more than Martha thought. She could tell her daughter was tearing up and it added further weight to all the things those people had told her about the Doctor last night.
She glanced awkwardly at the woman in black sat opposite, listening in. The woman didn't seem particularly disconcerted by what was being said.
"Promise you'll tell them?" Said Martha.
"I promise. Where are you?"
"Just out."
"With anyone nice?"
"Some mates."
"What mates?"
"Mum, can we just talk?"
Francine considered for a moment. "Alright. What do you want to talk about?"
"Anything! What you had for breakfast. What you watched on the telly last night. How much you're going to kill Dad next time you see him."
"Is the Doctor with you?" She said firmly.
"Mum, just leave it."
"It's a simple enough question. Is he there now?"
"I think I should go."
Francine looked at the woman, who gestured to the effect of keep her talking. "No, Martha, wait!"
"Bye Mum." She hung up and collapsed, sobbing into Riley's arms.
11:15
As the airlock finished decompressing, the Doctor took hold of a grab handle and braced himself.
The moment the door slid open, hydrogen rushed in at a rate of kilometres per second. If he hadn't been behind the wall, he would have been slammed against the back of the bay.
Once the pressure had normalised, he grabbed on to the edge of the pod and pulled himself forward. Though the ship's shields cushioned some on the effects, he still felt a bizarre sensation as the sun's gravity tried to pull him away from the hull but the solar winds pushed him back.
Praying that the wind wouldn't suddenly slacken, he held on to the doorframe with one hand and one foot and reached for the buttons that were four feet away from the door. With the sun's glare causing his visor to tint almost to capacity, the buttons were just a vague outline. But he felt along the panel, hitting the buttons second and fourth from the bottom.
But now he had a bigger problem. There was a lever he needed to pull, which was even further than the buttons. Though he knocked the cover off, he couldn't quite reach.
Though the heat shields extinguished any stream of burning hydrogen five metres from the hull, it was operating at severely reduced capacity and heat was bleeding through. Even the insulation in his spacesuit was starting to fail and he was heating up.
"How are you doing Doctor?" Scannell's voice came in his ear.
"I don't know how much longer I can last!" He cried.
"Come on! You can't give up now."
The Doctor grabbed hold of the button panel and let go of the doorframe. Now there was only a foot anchoring him in place, but it was the only way he could reach. Finally, he grabbed hold of the lever, stiff from years on non use, and pulled hard.
9:50
Martha and Riley felt a jolt as the pod abruptly reversed itself.
"He did it!" Cried Martha. "Didn't I tell you he'd do it?"
9:43
With a massive effort, the Doctor hauled himself back into the bay, then turned to look at the speck that was Martha, silhouetted against the sun. As he looked, he heard a hiss from the rising hydrogen that sounded almost like a voice. Then he realised it was a voice. The sun was alive!
9:07
McDonnell and Scannell had made it to area 10.
"Doctor, close the door! It's gonna smash into him." Said Scannell
"Take this." She handed him the clamps to attach while she ran to help any wounded they might have.
8:57
Martha clambered out of the airlock to see the Doctor crawling out of the bay ahead. He was clearly in pain.
"Doctor!" She rushed up to him. "Are you alright?"
He rolled over, his eyes blazing white. "Stay away from me!" He shouted, his voice drier than usual, before slamming his eyes shut.
More footsteps sounded as McDonnell came running.
"This is all your fault!" He shouted at her. "You ran scans on the star. You should have scanned for life!"
"Riley. Go and help Scannell, area 10. Now go!" Said McDonnell. "I don't understand. What's he saying?"
"That sun's alive! You scooped out its heart and now it's screaming!"
"How can a sun be alive? How can you know?"
"Because it's living in me! Humans! You take whatever's nearest and you bleed it dry! You should have scanned!"
"It takes too long. We'd be caught. Fusion scoops are illegal." Said McDonnell, though this didn't help the Doctor, writhing in agony.
Author's notes: Would anyone like to request another story for novelisation once I've finished this one?