FIFTEEN

As Jack finished relating his idea for a strategy to defeat the Namuh, the room was silent, and all eyes were incredulously on him.

Martha was the first to break the silence. "You're completely mad, you know that?"

"I told you it wasn't my best work," Jack said, shrugging. "What do you want from me?"

"They'll kill you both," she said.

"No, they need us," the Doctor pointed out.

She thought about it. The Doctor was right. "Well, they'll put a guard in this room, and then where will we be?"

"That's only if we get caught," Jack said, big smile.

"Correction," Martha said, then coughed, a palpable reminder of her fragile state. "That's if your plan doesn't work... and I'd say it's fifty-fifty. We have no real idea how either of these phenomena works, much less if that... thing is still in effect!"

"I believe it is," the Doctor said to Martha. "It's only been a day since we arrived here, and twenty-four hours ago, that thing was going strong. Zed waves don't just disappear from the atmosphere, they fade away. Even if it's waning, it's still out there."

"Good. So, are we going to give it a shot, or are we going to stand around and think about it until this virus ruins Martha's pretty face?" asked Jack.

"We're going to give it a shot," the Doctor said, almost a battle cry. It was a call to arms, figuratively speaking. Literally, he ordered all weapons laid aside.

"Oh, dear God," Martha moaned, falling back against her pillow. "This is completely and utterly daft."

The Doctor sat on the bed beside her, and fed her a bit more water. "I know, love, but Jack's right. It's all we've got." He set her cup down again. "Besides, maybe it's not that daft. Maybe it could work." He smiled smugly, playfully at her, and then kissed her mouth with gusto.

When he pulled away, her eyes were drooping half-shut, and she said, "All right. I trust you."

"I'll look after Martha once again while you and Jack go to the control room," Feeno said softly to the Doctor.

"No, not this time," the Doctor said, standing. "This time, we all go to the control room!"

"What?" asked Jack. "All of us?"

"We need all the human mind-power we can get in there, Jack. You said yourself that you might not be enough to take them down on your own," the Doctor explained. "And though the body may be weak just now, there's nothing wrong with her mind."

He bent down and cradled Martha's head in the crook of his right arm and draped her knees over his left. He lifted her tiny form off the bed, and was alarmed at its near-weightlessness. He knew it was simply perception, because the last time he'd done this, she'd been dead-weight unconscious and he'd been weakened from a lack of oxygen. Still, he made a mental note that she needed sustenance, and that that was their first priority, once the Namuh were dispatched.

"What do I need to do?" she asked, almost in a child-like way, her voice straining against the Doctor's ear.

"Nothing. Just breathe," he said, kissing her again.

"Okay," she said, closing her eyes and resting her head against his shoulder.

"Feeno, would you please bring a blanket?" the Doctor asked. He did as asked, tearing the dark blue blanket from the Doctor's bed, still warm from Martha's fever.

With that, two humans, a Time Lord and a Roy-Leman all left the safety of the TARDIS' master suite, and headed for the control room. All of them unarmed, all of them uncertain.

When they entered the presence of the Namuh Gnieb and the TARDIS' console, Plexaphedros stood from the navigator's stool and said, "Oh Doctor, I see you've brought the whole family. Miss Jones, how are you feeling?"

"Go to hell," Jack shot back at him.

The Doctor set Martha on the floor near the corridor archway, with her back against the wall. He took the blanket from Feeno, and wrapped her up, helping her to prop her head against a column for support. He asked her if she needed any water, and she assured him she did not. When he was quite sure she was as comfortable as she could be in these circumstances, he turned..

"Wouldn't she be more comfortable in a bed, Doctor?" asked Ahedruma, dripping with sweet sarcasm.

"Don't want to waste any time when we get to 2007. I want to be able just to pick her up and take her out of here as quickly as possible," the Doctor explained. He looked at Plexaphedros. "Now you promised us twenty-four hours."

"Absolutely," Plexaphedros answered. "Under supervision of Ahedruma, you will have a full day to help your Martha."

Jack directed a thought at him, not wanting to let on that they were suspicious, and might be planning something. How do we know we can rely on you to keep that promise?

The corners of Plexaphedros' mouth twitched. His eyes narrowed, and his female companions responded in kind. Plexaphedros never took his eyes off the Doctor, but his reaction was reaching Jack fully, and setting off alarms. He was twitchy, hiding something. Jack knew definitely now that these beings had no intention of giving the Doctor twenty-four hours in a medical facility to help Martha.

As if to confirm, Plexaphedros said, "Trust is a funny thing, Doctor. I personally don't understand it – don't want to understand it. But clearly, you have faith in something..."

The Doctor was tired of the overtures. "All right then, let's just get this done," he said, striding toward the console.

"Very well, Doctor," the male Namuh said. "It's all yours." He stepped away from the controls, and began to watch the process of travel in the TARDIS.

The vessel began to hum in response to the Doctor's touch. It powered up, and the Doctor typed their destination into the computer, and then reached for the blue lever.

The linear toggle. Martha smiled weakly. She'd never noticed it before, but there it was – the non-time, non-planet jumping device.

The whoosing came, the grinding of the TARDIS' gears as the ship dematerialised from Charing Cross, and reappeared somewhere else. The Doctor stood, staring at the screen the whole time, hands on the controls, feet spread wide apart, brow furrowed.

When the noise stopped, the Doctor looked at Plexaphedros without a word. He waited a few seconds, and then crossed the control room to the entrance ramp. As he did this, Jack looked meaningfully at Martha.

The two of them, in tandem, allowed this thought to resonate inside their minds: It is still 1350! You have been tricked by the Doctor!

As this information passed from them to the unconscious minds of the Namuh, the Doctor smiled maniacally and challenged, "Come and get me!" and then bolted out through the TARDIS' only exit.

The three aliens picked up their vaporising weapons, and crying out in protest of this turn of events, follwed him out the door in a flash.