When McDonnell, the Doctor, and Kayla reached the med center behind Scannell, they did not find a pretty sight. They had repeatedly heard Korwin, the husband of Captain McDonnell, saying 'Burn with me,' and though that had pushed them to run even harder, it seemed that that hadn't been enough and they were too late, for the bed where Korwin had been lying was empty.
"Korwin's gone…" McDonnell whispered.
Scannell, who had turned to watch his captain's face, made a choking noise. "Oh my God…"
Turning in the same direction as him, the trio saw a horrible, horrible sight. On one of the walls of the med center, there was a charred, black human shape seared on the wall. One of its hands was in the air.
Kayla was the first one to realize who it was and turned around and quietly vomited at the mere idea. The Doctor quickly wrapped his arms around her and held her hair back until she was done. Reaching into his pockets, he pulled a rag that the brunette took and used to wipe off her face.
'Doctor, that was-'
'I know, Kayla.'
Once the Time Lord was sure that Kayla was alright, the Doctor went over to the wall by himself and ran his finger around the outline of the body's shape, only vaguely aware that Scannell said, "Tell me that's not Lerner."
"Endothermic vaporization. I've never seen one this ferocious," the Doctor explained in a low voice. Shaking his head, he took in the figure as a whole. "Burn with me," he echoed.
"That's what we heard Korwin say," Scannell pointed out.
McDonnell's eyed widened as she realized what they were implying. "What?! D'you think…no way! Scannell, tell him! Korwin is not a killer! He can't vaporize people! He's human!" she protested, her voice rising as she got worked up over the thought.
Not paying attention to the captain, the Doctor leaned down and picked up the x-rays and Bioscan reports that had had Abi so worked up before. "His bioscan results…internal temperature, one hundred degrees! Body oxygen replaced by hydrogen!" He quickly turned towards McDonnell. "Your husband hasn't been infected, he's been overwhelmed!"
Shaking her head, McDonnell snatched the results out of the Doctor's hand. "The test results are wrong!"
Ignoring her once again, the Doctor started to pace as he tried to think of what it meant. "But what is it though? Parasite? Mutagenic virus? Something that needs a host body. But how did it get inside him?!"
Her voice raised in hysteria, McDonnell snapped at the Doctor, "Stop talking like he's some kind of experiment!"
The Doctor whirled to face her. "Where's the ship been? Have you made planet-fall recently?" Oddly enough, McDonnell's face went blank. "Docked with any other vessels? Any kind of external contact at all?"
McDonnell crossed her arms and glared at the Doctor. "What is this? An interrogation?!"
Kayla stepped next to the Doctor, still pale from throwing up but seemingly okay. "We need to stop him before he can kill again," she explained in a soft voice.
It was at this point that McDonnell seemed to become overwhelmed. Whispering, "We're just…a cargo ship," she turned away from the couple with a distraught look.
Seeing this, Scannell hurried over and started to comfort the captain. "Doctor, Kayla, if you give her a minute…" Nodding, the Doctor and Kayla looked on as the man comforted McDonnell.
Recovering quickly, the captain shook her head and faced the couple once more. "I'm fine. I need to warn the crew." Leaving her to it, the Doctor showed Kayla the Bioscan results while McDonnell walked over to the intercom and spoke into it. "Everybody listen to me! Something has infected Korwin. We think…" at the pause, the Doctor looked over to see her taking a deep breath, "He killed Abi Lerner. None of you must go anywhere near him, is that clear?"
"Understood Captain," Ashton replied in a hard voice.
"Impact in 24.51."
The Doctor and Kayla were still puzzling over the results while McDonnell sat on the empty bed and Scannell stood nearby her.
"Is the infection permanent? Can you cure him?" the captain finally asked after a long and tense silence.
Kayla exchanged a look with the Doctor before looking over at McDonnell. "We don't know," she said in a serious voice.
McDonnell glared. "Don't lie to me Kayla, or you, Doctor. Eleven years we've been married. We chose this ship together. He keeps me honest. So I don't want false hope."
Not liking the look the captain was giving his Bonded one bit, the Doctor was a bit harsher than her than he usually would have been. "The parasite's too aggressive. Your husband's gone. There's no way back," when Kayla rested her hand on his shoulder to calm him, the Doctor added in a, "Sorry," that sounded slightly sincere.
'Doctor, go easy on her,' Kayla said with a slight frown. 'She just found out her husband is affected by a parasite that has completely taken over him. How would you feel if the same happened to me?'
Frowning at the mere thought, the Doctor grabbed Kayla's hand and squeezed it tightly. This action calmed him down enough so that when he spoke to McDonnell again, it was in a far softer and kinder voice than before. "Are you…certain nothing happened to provoke this? Nobody's working on anything secret, 'cause it's vital that you tell me."
McDonnell frowned at the question. "I know every inch of this ship. I know every detail of my crew's lives. There is nothing."
"Then why is this so interested in you?" he asked.
The captain shrugged helplessly. "I wish I knew…" she said with a shake of her head.
Suddenly, the comm. crackled to life and Martha's voice came through once more. "Doctor, Kayla, we're through to area 17," she reported.
The Doctor nodded. "Keep going. you've got to get to area one and reboot those engines," he reminded.
"Heat shield failing. At twenty percent."
The Doctor, Kayla, McDonnell, and Scannell were all running towards the engine room when Martha's voice came through the intercom. "Doctor and Kayla! We're stuck in an escape pod off the area seventeen airlock," she reported. "One of the crew's trying to jettison us! You've gotta help us!"
McDonnell frowned. "Why is this happening?"
The Doctor squeezed Kayla's hand and only sent her a glare in response. "Stay here! I mean it this time!" he ordered, and the two ran off. "Jump start those engines!" he added over his shoulder.
The Doctor and Kayla ran hard through the many corridors the ship held. By the time they reached area 17 and the escape pod, it was clear that they had little time left. Knowing that it would take longer for Kayla to recover and, honestly, he hated the idea of drawing this unknown parasite's attention to the brunette. So he stepped in front of her and yelled at the figure, which was clearly Ashton, "That's enough!" Hearing his voice, Ashton turned and seemed to stare at him through the helmet he was wearing. "What do you want? Why this ship? Tell me!"
Instead of answering him, what used to be Ashton turned back to the keypad and put his fist through it. Judging by the way Riley and Martha started to panic in the pod, it seemed that there was no way to stop the escape pod from leaving.
The Doctor glared at Ashton. "Come on. Let's see you," he said while Ashton started to advance towards the Time Lord. "I wanna know what you really are…"
As Ashton started to lift the visor of the helmet he was wearing, the Doctor moved more in front of Kayla, forcing the brunette completely behind him. Ignoring the irritation she felt at this, the Doctor focused in on Ashton as he continued to raise the visor…and then he stopped and seemed to double up, overcome with something painful. However, this only lasted a few seconds and then Ashton was straightening up and heading towards the Doctor. The Time Lord grounded his teeth and prepared to tell Kayla to run when, quite oddly, Ashton jostled past the two and headed out of area 17.
The Doctor blinked and then turned to Kayla, who was frowning. 'He's got to be headed to the others,' she warned.
Seeing the logic in this, the Doctor hurried over to the nearest comm. unit and switched it on. "McDonnell! Ashton's heading in your direction!" He shouted into it. "He's been infected, just like Korwin!"
There was a pause and then Scannell replied, "Korwin's dead, Doctor." The Doctor's face fell at this information and he looked down.
'Doctor,' Kayla said suddenly, causing him to look over at the brunette. 'Martha's still in the pod.'
His eyes widening, the Doctor hurried over to the door to the escape pod to see the black woman mouthing his and Kayla's name. Knowing that there was nothing he could do, the Doctor mouthed back, 'We'll save you,' over and over again even as the pod detached from the ship and started to float away.
"Impact in 17.05."
For a long time, the Doctor and Kayla sat in area 17, both distraught over the loss of Martha. Kayla's brain was going in repeated circle of thoughts. Her head was resting on the Doctor's shoulder while the Time Lord had wrapped an arm around her and held her close. They both felt utterly hopeless, Kayla especially so. Despite the fact that she and Martha weren't really at the best place in their relationship, she still loved the black woman. She had always been kind to Kayla and the Doctor and, to be completely honest, the brunette had always seen her as some sort of daughter figure. It was their job to protect Martha and now she was floating off towards a sun in an escape pod.
Feeling Kayla's distress, the Doctor hugged the brunette close. His thoughts were equally dark, but there was one that was growing with increasing attention.
Shooting to his feet, the Doctor headed over to the comm. unit once more. "Scannell! I need a spacesuit in area 17, now!" He barked into it. Kayla looked up at the Time Lord, her brow furrowing.
"What for?" Scannell asked.
Growling in frustration, the Doctor yelled into the comm. unit, making the brunette jump in shock, "Just get down here!"
Getting to her feet, Kayla walked over to the Doctor with a frown on her face. "What are you planning?" she asked in a low voice. Ever since the Doctor had headed over to the comm. unit, he had completely blocked the brunette out, which hurt more than she rather admit.
Instead of answering, the Doctor just squeezed Kayla's hand tightly and then walked over to the airlock door and looked out.
Kayla was very, very displeased at the plan the Doctor had come up with. Her arms were crossed over her stomach and her eyes were narrow in a glare as the Doctor, now dressed in an orange space suit with a helmet under his arm.
Scannell, who was on the same side of as Kayla, was frowning deeply at the Time Lord. "I can't let you do this."
The Doctor just rolled his eyes. "You're wasting your breath, Scannell. You're not gonna stop me."
Kayla, however, had a different tactic. She stepped up so they were practically nose to nose. "What happens if you don't come back?"
The Doctor swallowed hard. Taking both her hands, he squeezed them tight. "Martha is worth that risk. It's the least we can do."
Unwanted tears went to Kayla's eyes and she closed them tightly to not let them fall. "This is suicide," she whispered.
The Doctor kissed the brunette gently. "Go wait outside this room," he instructed. "I don't...if something happens then I want you far away. The further you are the more time you have before-before you go insane."
The unwanted tears falling, Kayla turned and walked out of the door. As she was leaving, she heard Scannell say in a low, worried voice, "You open that airlock, it's suicide. This close to the sun, the shields will barely protect you."
The door sliding shut behind her, Kayla leaned against the wall and closed her eyes, the tears falling more and more. She knew in her two hearts that the Doctor would not survive this. Her hand went to her stomach as her thoughts flew to the other baby she had once carried. Poor, poor Lucy. And then what about Jack? Part of her wanted to believe that he was alive, it was almost like part of her knew that he should be. But nothing came back from death. Briefly, her hand fingered the vortex manipulator on her wrist. For the first time since she had Bonded with the Doctor, she felt truly and completely alone.
"Impact in 11.15."
Kayla felt it when the Doctor left the airlock. She felt her chest tightening from both her anxiety and the anxiety the Doctor had. She felt hot and stuffy and she fanned herself lightly with her hand, not that that helped. She felt the same desperation the Doctor was feeling and if she closed her eyes she could almost picture the Doctor hanging onto the burning ship and stretching towards a lever to pull it down and get the pod Marth and Riley were in to return.
Shaking her head hard to get rid of the image, Kayla tried not to close her eyes for a long time, but the mental link they had to seemed to have other ideas. It seemed to almost force her eyes close and once again she could practically see the Doctor struggling back into the airlock and staring out at the sun, watching its swirling molten surface. And then…she felt the horror, the vile sickness the Doctor felt as he, and therefore she, realized that the sun was alive.
And then it happened. The parasite the injured, angry sun gave off infected the Doctor. Feeling it try to get to her, Kayla slammed as many mental barriers she could between her and the Doctor. It hurt both of them, but she knew it was needed. And thankfully, it worked. Though she could no longer feel the Doctor, which scared her, she was also not infected with the parasite.
But the Doctor was, and he needed her. So she started to make for the door to the airlock with the computer warning, "Impact in. 8. 57," when the Doctor fell out of the airlock and onto the floor of the corridor.
Even if she hadn't known that he was infected, she would have known the minute she saw him. He was sweating buckets and his eyes were screwed shut. He fell to the floor and started to writhe in pain. Her heart breaking, Kayla knelt beside him and held his hand tightly. "Doctor, I'm here," she said in a soft voice.
The door to the airlock opened once more and Martha and Riley clambered out. The two quickly took in the scene and Martha knelt beside the Time Lord. "Doctor! Doctor!" When he gave no response, she looked up at Kayla. "Is he OK?"
Shaking her head, Kayla had the black woman help her help the Doctor sit up, however, during the process his eyes flashed open just enough to reveal the sickening, burning bright light before he squeezed them closed. "Stay away from me!" he growled.
Nodding to Martha to follow his instructions, Kayla and the Martha backed off quickly from the Doctor as McDonnell ran up. "What's happened?" she asked.
If the Doctor was able to open his eyes, Kayla was positive he would have been glaring at the woman. As it was, Kayla was glaring at her hard, which seemed to make her slightly uncomfortable. "It's your fault, Captain McDonnell!" the Doctor yelled out.
Kayla saw her expression of shock, though she didn't let it linger on her face for long and quickly regained her composure. "Riley! Get down to area 10 and help Scannell with the doors. Go!" Not needing to be told twice, Riley jogged off.
"You mined that sun! Stripped its surface for cheap fuel! You should have scanned for life!" the Doctor shouted at McDonnell.
The woman blinked. "I don't understand."
"Doctor, what are you talking about?!" Martha added in, her eyes roaming the Doctor's face and then flicking towards Kayla.
Knowing that the Doctor was in too much pain to talk, Kayla started to explain, though her voice was low and almost growly. "That sun, the sun you used to as cheap, illegal fuel, is alive. And now, it's screaming."
"What do you mean? How can a sun be alive?" McDonnell shook her head. "Why are you saying that?"
"Because it's living in him."
The full weight of what she had done hitting her, Captain McDonnell whispered, "Oh my god…"
On the ground, the Doctor growled. "Humans! You grab whatever's nearest and bleed it dry!" He let out a scream of pure anguish and pain, causing Kayla to press back against the wall and place a protective hand on her stomach. The baby, as if sensing what its father was going through, was kicking and moving around. "You should have scanned!"
"It takes too long! We'd be caught! Fusion scoops are illegal," McDonnell tried to explain.
The Doctor cried out in pain once more. "You've got to freeze me, quickly!"
Instantly, Kayla and Martha were back at the Doctor's side. Seeing Martha's confused face, Kayla quickly tried to explain. "The stasis chamber! We need to freeze it out of him."
"…below minus 200," the Doctor groaned out. His face seemed to change from pure pain to some mixture of pain and fear. "It'll use me to kill you if you don't! The closer we get to the sun, the stronger-" he bit down on his lip hard and Kayla saw that he had drawn blood. "-it gets! Med-centre! Quickly! Quickly!"
Knowing that she couldn't help, Kayla pulled back. Turning to McDonnell, she nearly screamed at the woman, "Help Martha!"
Snapping into action, McDonnel helped Martha pick up the Doctor. The two half-dragged, half-carried the Time Lord down the corridors as quickly as possible with Kayla following.
"Impact in, 7.30."
Martha and McDonnell with the Doctor in between them broke through the plastic that acted as a door to the med center. The Doctor screamed out again as he was lifted onto the stasis chamber bed. Kayla was instantly next to him, her hand holding his as tightly as she could. "I'm here Doctor," she said in a soft voice.
The Doctor gritted his teeth, clearly trying to hold back the parasite. "Where's Martha?"
Martha, who was already coming over, hurried up when she heard the Doctor say her name. "Here I am! Stasis chamber, minus 200, yeah?"
"No, you don't know how this equipment works! You'll kill him! Nobody can survive those temperatures!" McDonnell protested, glaring at Martha and Kayla.
Kayla sent back a glare of her own. "He and I aren't human. He is able to survive this," she snarled.
McDonnell blinked and then made a move towards the bed. "Let me help you then!"
"You have done enough help Captain McDonnell," Kayla growled.
As McDonnell backed away, Martha and Kayla went back to helping the Doctor, and, in the case of Martha, trying to figure out the stasis chamber. "Ten seconds. That's all I'll be able to take. No more!" the Doctor warned and then, once another scream of pain was done, cried out, "Kayla!"
The brunette squeezed his hand. "I'm here Doctor," she repeated.
"It's burning me up. I can't control it," the Doctor sounded scared and worried, so Kayla squeezed his hand once more. "If you don't get rid of it," his face shifted from pain to one of pure hatred. "I'll kill them all. I'll kill them all with you at my side." With another scream, he seemed to break through the parasite. "I'm scared! I'm so scared!" He admitted.
Kayla felt a few tears fall and she squeezed the Doctor's hand. "I know, Doctor, I know. We're going to get through this together. I'll be right next to you."
"It's bloody killing me! Then what'll happen?!"
"I won't let it."
The Doctor whimpered in pain. "You need…you need to tell Martha about…about regeneration," the Doctor struggled to say. "If I die-"
"You won't die," Kayla snapped. "I need you here. Your child needs you here." Seeing the look Martha was giving her, Kayla took a deep breath. "I'll be here as soon as you come out," she vowed. "I love you."
The Doctor yelled out in pain and fear as Martha pushed a lever that made the bed he was on go into the chamber. Typing in the number, the black woman felt Kayla come up next to her. Together, the two watched as the temperature in the chamber drop rapidly and together, the two tried to ignore the Doctor screaming in agony.
"Heat shields failing. At five percent."
It was at -70 when disaster struck. The stasis chamber shut off, leaving the Doctor covered in ice crystals and still very much infected by the sun. "No! Martha you can't stop it! Not yet!" he cried out.
"What happened?" Kayla asked McDonnell sharply.
"Power's been cut in engineering," she explained with a frown.
Martha shook her head. "But who's down there?"
Kayla saw McDonnell's eyes widened. "Leave it to me," she said before running out of the room.
The Doctor let out another scream in the stasis chamber, making Kayla and Martha exchanged worried looks.
Time was now running short. Martha was trying to figure out how to get the stasis chamber working again while Kayla was watching the Doctor in the chamber with a frown on her face. She felt completely powerless as she watched the Doctor defrost.
Suddenly, the Doctor called out, "Martha, Kayla! Listen!" Both exchanging worried looks, the two peered into the stasis chamber. "I've only got a moment. You two have gotta go!"
Martha frowned. "No way!"
Kayla crossed her arms stubbornly. "I am not leaving you," she hissed.
"Get to the front! Vent the engines! Sun particles in the fuel! Get rid of them!" the Doctor pleaded.
"I am not leaving you!" Martha protested, but Kayla was silent.
"You've got to! Give back what they took!" the Doctor cried out.
Martha looked over at Kayla helplessly and was surprised when Kayla nodded. "Go," the pregnant woman said in a low voice. "I'm staying." When Martha opened her mouth to protest, Kayla snapped, "Go!"
Her eyes widening, Martha hurried off.
"Kayla…Kayla please," the Doctor pleaded inside the stasis chamber. "I need you to go with her. I don't want to hurt you!"
Kayla shook her head. "You heard the parasite. It won't kill me."
The Doctor whimpered in response.
"Impact in 2.17."
Kayla was backed against the wall, carefully watching as the Doctor literally fell out of the stasis chamber. Fighting some sort of invisible force, the Doctor threw himself over the stasis chamber's controls and then fell to the floor.
Crawling on the floor, he looked up at Kayla, his eyes squeezed shut. "Kayla…go to Martha. Give it back or…"
The brunette saw his eyes start to open and ran hard. She felt a burning sensation on her back and heard the Doctor say in a deep voice, "Burn with me. Burn with me, Kayla!"
"Impact in 1.21."
Grabbing an individual comm. that was on the ground, Kayla flipped it on and yelled into it, "Martha, hurry!"
Behind her, the Doctor screamed out as they got closer to the sun and Kayla winced. She continued to run, trying to ignore how hard it was becoming to breath.
"Impact in 1.06."
"I'm there!" Martha suddenly yelled through the comm. "I'm there Kayla! Doctor, hold on!"
It seemed that Martha meant that warning literally because suddenly, the ship lurched forwards powerfully. Kayla fell to the floor with a huff, her hands instantly going to her stomach. She quickly looked behind her in time to see the Doctor try to clutch onto the wall but lose his grip and fall to the floor as well. The two slid on the ground, the ship still lurching more and more.
The Doctor let out a pained fill screamed…and then it stopped.
"Impact averted. Impact averted."
Kayla slowly got to her feet and turned to the Doctor, her eyes wide. The Time Lord looked up, his eyes back to normal. Very slowly, Kayla raised the mental barriers.
'Kayla…' At the Doctor sighing her name, the brunette's eyes filled with tears. She ran towards him.
Though he was clearly weak, the Doctor got to his feet and hugged Kayla close. 'Never, never again,' Kayla repeated mentally while kissing him gently on the lips repeatedly. Tilting her head up with a finger, the Doctor captured her lips with his.
For a while, the Doctor and Kayla were like that, just remembering each other as if they had been apart for months upon in. However, they were interrupted by a slight coughing noise. The Doctor flicked his eyes upwards and then nuzzled his head into the brunette's hair while Kayla looked around to see Martha, her face flushed from running over to them. The Doctor grinned and went over to hug her and, after a moment, Kayla joined in as well.
Much later, once the chamber they had parked in had cooled down enough that it was safe to go in, the Doctor, Kayla, and Martha walked around the TARDIS to check it over and make sure all the bumping and lurching hadn't hurt it. It clearly needed a fresh coat of paint, as scratches were showing through, but it looked okay otherwise.
"This is never your ship!" Scannell protested with a shake of his head.
The Doctor, who had put up a mask to try and hide just how affected he was over the parasite, rolled his eyes at the man. "Compact! Eh! And another good word, robust! Barely a scorch mark on her," the Doctor said oh-so-casually as he leaned on one of the larger scorch marks the TARDIS had gotten from the heat.
Martha, once she had checked over the TARDIS herself, switched her brain to being concerned for the two crew members left on the ship. "We can't just leave them drifting with no fuel," she pointed out with a frown to the couple.
Riley gave her a slightly pleased smile at her concern. "We've sent out an official mayday. The authorities will pick us up soon enough," he explained.
"Though how we explain what happened…" Scannell muttered, a frown on his face at the mere idea of the task.
Sensing the Doctor's discomfort, Kayla looked up in time to see him open up the TARDIS to make a hasty retreat into the ship. She frowned slightly, a flash of hurt going through her that the Doctor hadn't said anything to her about leaving, but she brushed it aside quickly. She figured that the Doctor was just tired. After all, not many people fought off an angry sun's parasite.
"Just tell them," the Doctor said in a low voice, bringing Kayla's attention back to reality. "That sun needs care and protection, just like any other living thing."
As the Doctor stepped inside the TARDIS, Kayla followed him. She frowned as she realized that Martha was not. Turning around, her eyes widened in sudden understanding as she saw the black woman and Riley, the man she had been trapped in the escape pod with, speaking in low voices.
Grinning slightly, she turned back and stepped into the TARDIS. For a brief moment, the Doctor looked up at her from the console, but then he went back to checking on the machine.
The brunette swallowed hard. "Doctor?" she tried to say in a soft voice, but her voice cracked slightly.
The Doctor looked up at his name. Reading her expression, he gave her a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I'm fine," he promised.
Opening her mouth to protest this clear lie, Kayla allowed her mouth to close at the sound of Martha coming in and leaning against the door to the TARDIS. The brunette turned to see her flushing faintly.
"How was Riley?" Kayla asked.
Martha blinked and then blushed much stronger. "He was fine. Just saying how much fun it was not dying with each other."
The Doctor, not laughing at this, moved over to Martha and handed her a key attached to a string. Martha looked down at it and then her eyes widened and she looked up at the Time Lord. "Really?" she whispered in shock.
"Frequent Flier's Privilege," the Doctor explained in a low voice.
Noticing that he was acting so off, Martha looked over at Kayla, but she just shook her head. With a frown, the black woman looked over at the Doctor as she watched him piolet the TARDIS silently. Suddenly, he broke his silence by throwing up a lever and turning towards them. "Now! What do you say? Ice skating on the mineral lakes of Cuhlhan. Fancy it?"
Martha grinned and then nodded…and then her face changed to a mask of pure horror. "Oh no! Mum!" Turning away, she started to dial a phone number into the cell phone and held it up to her ear.
As the black woman started to speak into the cell, Kayla walked over to the Doctor and took his hand and squeezed it. 'It's going to be okay,' she vowed mentally.
In answer, the Doctor squeezed Kayla's hand tightly.
Sorry it took so long to post this, but I had a bunch of homework this weekend and that obviously comes first.
Not a huge fan of this episode but I did enjoy how sweet Kayla and the Doctor are. Be prepared for the tears next chapter!
And now...review time:
NicoleR85: Thank you!
Andrey258: Jack and Martha traveling through time, oh you make a girl dream! Lol. Seriously though, Martha and Jack together are a team to be reckoned with.