Chapter 4: 8:01
The Doctor gasped in pain again. "Martha! Get me to the stasis chamber!"
"What?"
"Freeze it out of me! Below minus 200. It'll use you to kill me if you don't! Quickly!"
"Help me!" Screamed Martha. They each took the Doctor by an arm and carried him away.
7:30
The atmosphere in the ship now resembled the experience of standing next to an open oven. The star particles that had overwhelmed Korwin gained strength from the temperature rise and began to revive his body. First the fingers twitched. Then the arm. Within seconds, he was fumbling around for the heat mask McDonnell had removed.
7:15
"What's your favourite colour?" Said Scannell, as Riley ran into area 10.
"What?"
"It's the question."
"Purple." He ran to attach the clamps. "Or did I say orange?"
"Come on!"
7:03
They dragged the still thrashing Doctor into the med centre. Martha looked at the array of controls on the stasis chamber and hurried over to check the manual.
"Martha, where are you!" The Doctor cried, collapsing to the floor.
"It's alright, I've got you!" She said, grabbing his arm and helping him onto the examination bed by the chamber. "Just need to check what to do."
"You don't know how this equipment works. You'll kill him!" Cried McDonnell. "No one can survive those temperatures."
"He's not human. If he says he can survive those temperatures. I believe him."
"At least let me help you!"
"You've done enough damage!" Martha snapped.
"Ten seconds!" Said the Doctor. "That's all I'll be able to take. No more!"
"Yeah?"
"It's burning me up. I can't control it. If you don't get rid of it, I could kill you. I could kill you all. I'm scared! I'm so scared!"
"Just stay calm. You saved me, now I return the favour. Just believe in me." She reassured him.
"It's burning through me! Then what'll happen?"
"It's alright. We'll help you."
"There's this process. This thing that happens as I'm about to die." The Doctor had been meaning to get into the habit of explaining this to his companions in advance.
"Shush, quiet now." She cut him off before he could finish. "'cos that's not going to happen. Are you ready?"
"No."
She pulled a joystick and the Doctor slid back into the chamber. Martha then keyed in -200 and hit a green button.
The Doctor screamed in agony as his body temperature plummeted.
5:35
In the engine room, Korwin was pulling himself to his feet. Looking to the left, he saw a screen reading Energy drain, med centre. Sensing that an element of the sun particles was in danger, he went over to the fuse panel and pulled a lever, cutting off the power to the med centre.
5:13
The display had counted down to -72 and the Doctor was covered in frost. But then the machine abruptly shut down.
"No Martha, you can't stop it! Not yet!" Cried the Doctor, thinking she'd turned it off.
"Power's been cut in engineering." Said McDonnell.
"But who's down there?" Said Martha.
McDonnell took a deep breath. "Leave it to me."
4:47
Scannell and Riley correctly guessed the year of the first confirmed Dalek invasion of Earth and hurried through into area 4.
"Do you think we're gonna make it?" Said Riley.
4:39
Martha repeatedly mashed the on button in the hope that the machine would somehow get the message. "Come on! He's defrosting."
"Martha!" He shouted. "I've only got a moment! You've got to get to the front!"
"No way."
"Vent the engines. Sun particles in the fuel. Give back what they took!"
"I'm not leaving you."
"It's the only way we can survive! Go!"
"Doctor!"
"Please!"
With a massive effort, Martha turned away from him and ran.
4:08
McDonnell looked at the row of fuses and found the one that was twisted round. But before she could get to it, Korwin stepped into her way.
When he made no attempt to attack her, she held her hands up in a calm manner. "You were right. This is all my fault."
Korwin tilted his head as though thinking her words over. McDonnell tried to use this pause to make a grab for the fuse, but this spurred Korwin into action, stepping forward to block her and reaching for his visor.
McDonnell did the only thing she could think of and ran.
3:44
Martha felt as though she was actually burning up, from how fast she'd had to sprint through these superheated, stuffy corridors, dodging around obstacles and steam jets. It was also getting harder to breathe. Only the adrenalin kept her going.
3:35
McDonnell had jettisoned one of the escape pods to make it look as though she'd abandoned ship. Then ducked down against the wall of the empty airlock. It was a flimsy deception, but she just hoped that Korwin, or the sun particles wouldn't be thinking straight in their condition.
But Korwin saw through it straight away, knowing she'd be too smart to jettison herself into the sun. He pressed a button and stepped forward, blocking the only door.
"Korwin." She pleaded one last time as she backed away. "I know you're in there. Please."
"YOU MUST BURN." He growled, advancing on her.
McDonnell had backed all the way through the bay now. Feeling a panel under her hand, she realised that there was only one way out of this.
First she hit a button to close the main door, an action which distracted Korwin long enough for her to hit the intercom. "Riley, Scannell, keep going to those engines. Good luck."
"Eh?" Said Scannell.
As Ashton turned back towards her, she hit the open airlock button and threw her arms around her husband one last time. "I love you." She said.
The door slid open and they went spinning off into the sun together.
2:33
"Airlock opened." The computer announced.
Riley and Scannell looked at each other, stunned, for a few moments.
"We've got to keep going." Said Scannell. This is the last door.
2:20
The Doctor wasn't sure if it was him or the creature that was driving him to drag himself out of the chamber. If he was making some futile attempt to get the deep freeze going again and then crawling off in search of help, or whether the sun needed him to replace Ashton in killing the others.
After crawling down the stairs and across a room, he hauled himself up to an intercom.
1:55
As the life support systems started to fail, the ship's gravity became a lot more turbulent in intensity, making everyone feel like they were working in an earthquake.
It didn't help that fatigue was beginning to set in on Martha, which slowed her down significantly. What's more, oxygen deprivation was creating colour spots in her vision. Twice, she'd stumbled into the doorframes in her befuddled state.
"Martha!" The Doctor's voice came over the intercom.
"Doctor! What are you doing?"
"I can't fight it!"
"But what should I do?"
"You need to… Burn with me Martha! Burn with me!"
Martha suddenly got a second wind that propelled her onwards.
1:21
The final question had somehow been the hardest and required calculations which would have been relatively simple with a calculator, or even pen and paper. But were much harder to do in your head, sitting in a spaceship which was veering towards the sun.
But it had worked and the door came open. They rushed through and into the auxiliary engine room.
As the shaking intensified, Riley and Scannell clutched the appropriate consoles tightly and tried to operate the controls, but found them inoperative.
"It's not working!" Riley cried. "Why's it not working?" They could not have come this far to fail at the last hurdle.
"Vent the engines! Dump the fuel!" Shouted Martha, as she raced into the room.
"What?" Shouted Scannell.
"Sun particles in the fuel. Get rid of them. Do it now!"
They obeyed, twisting several valves open to speed up the process.
A stream of fuel shot out from the ship, igniting in a multi-coloured cloud as the gravitational forces around the sun split the particles apart.
0:17
In another part of the ship, the Doctor felt the heat that had overwhelmed his head begin to fade. The intense light shot from his eyes and dissipated in the air, the sun particles were gone.
0:03
On the screens, the infographic of the ship showed the main fuel tank emptying out. The second the ship's reserve tanks kicked in, the engines roared into life. The force of the ship powering away from the sun threw them all to the floor. They were so close to the sun that they almost got dragged in anyway. The ship hung there for a few moments, juddering unsteadily, before the boosters won out and they struggled away.
"We made it! Cried Riley. Just enough reserve to get us clear.
"Doctor!" Shouted Martha, racing down the ship to find him.
She found him hauling himself to his feet, looking exhausted but, otherwise, none the worse for ware. Unable to help it, she threw her arms round him.
A few hours later and the ship was safely drifting in orbit within the habitable zone of the system. The life support systems had returned the environment to normal and the Doctor had found the TARDIS with barely a scorch mark on her.
"We can't just leave you drifting with no fuel." Said Martha.
"We've put out an official distress call. The authorities should pick it up soon enough." Said Riley.
"Though not sure how we explain what's happened." Said Scannell.
"Just tell them that star needs care and protection, like any other living thing." Said the Doctor, as he stepped back into the TARDIS.
Riley caught Martha before she could follow him. "So, er, no chance I'll see you again?"
"Not really. It was nice though. Not dying with you. I reckon you'll find someone you can believe in soon enough."
"I reckon I already have." He smiled.
Martha thought for a moment then pulled him in for a kiss. "Well done. Very hot." She said once she pulled away.
She turned away from him and went back into the TARDIS. "So, didn't need you in the end, did we?" She said to the Doctor, before realising he was staring into space, clearly affected by being possessed that way. "Sorry. Are you alright?"
The Doctor didn't answer. He just changed the subject. "So… What do you say to ice skating on the mineral lakes of Kur-Ha?"
"Whatever you like." She shrugged, trying not to look disappointed that he wouldn't open up.
"By the way." He added. "You'll be needing this." He pulled a TARDIS key from his pocket and handed it to her.
"Really?" She gasped excitedly.
"Frequent fliers privilege." He smiled. "Like the phone. Thank you."
"Oh no. Mum!" Martha suddenly remembered, and phoned her mother. "Hello. Me again."
"Three calls in one day." Said Francine.
"Sorry about earlier." She said. "Over emotional. Mad day!"
"What are you doing tonight?" Her mother said casually. "Why don't you come round? I'll put something nice on."
"Right… tonight. I'll do my best. What day is it again?"
"Election day."
"Right. I'll be round for tea."
"And what about…"
"I've got to go now. Love you. Bye."
Francine heard her ring off and turned to the woman in black, who was holding out an evidence bag.
"Is that all?" Francine placed the phone in the bag.
"For now. Have you voted?"
"Of course. Don't expect me to tell you who for."
The woman in black thought she could guess anyway. "Thank you for all you're doing Mrs Jones. Mr Saxon will be very pleased.
Next time: The Sontaran Stratagem