Console room of the TARDIS. There was a cozy silence in it, interrupting by a quiet and pleasant hum, and by some devices of the console itself as well. In each corner of the room there were three round "lamps" that gave most of the lighting to the entire cantilever room. A screen on one of the walls of the room showed how the Inspector and Daria were talking to the Ripper after the case was completed. A small conversation ended, and they both went to the TARDIS. The wooden door of the room opened, and the Inspector and Dasha entered the room, the Inspector went to the console, clicking the buttons and pulling the levers. The girl went towards the wall with a screen, near which stood a sofa and armchairs, one of which Dasha sat down. The inspector pulled one of the levers, and the TARDIS began to make sounds of takeoff. Instead of an abandoned town, a blue cloud began to appear on the screen, which was spinning in a spiral, and sometimes purple dust was visible. The sounds of takeoff ended, and they were replaced by a louder hum, which indicated that the flight was normal.
" Inspector, what is the cloud that shows the screen? " asked Dariya
" This is a Time Vortex. It binds the entire fabric of the space-time continuum. The TARDIS travels through time and space just through it, " the Inspector calmly replied, moving away from the console and dismantling the device, which helped with the heat of the Ripper.
" I see. Well, it was nice to work with you, now I have to go back in time, recover and find a new job. I think that be a police officer is enough of me."
" Yeah, I already put the coordinates of the city will be there soon."
" Wait what? What bloody hospital? With what money will I be treated there for? " she said to the Inspector in a high tone
" Hah! Believe me, I can negotiate. If words fail, then my..."persistence" goes " the Inspector smiled. " By the way, I decided to improve the device so that, if anything, I could not worry about many factors while you were wearing it. But the problem is that this will take a long time. I cannot say the exact amount of time, because it is unpredictable. "
"I see... Well, then good luck with that. I would not want to rip off something myself and then suffer."
The TARDIS made a landing sound, after which, Dasha and the Inspector, shaking hands, said goodbye to each other and the girl went to the exit of the TARDIS and disappeared through the door. But suddenly:
" Uh ... Inspector! Come here, please! " Dasha called him in nor in a frightened, nor in a surprised voice. The inspector did not hesitate and went outside. " I understand that hospitals in my country are far from ideal sanitation, but not like this..! "
" Tha hell? " said The Inspector, seeing that he and Dasha are standing in an abandoned hospital in front of a collapsed reception walls were dilapidated and had loosed paint, but they were also covered with black branched pattern. And they were covered not only the walls, but the floor and ceiling. " This is absolutely not the place where we were supposed to land! "
" Are you sure your navigation system is fine? Could she be there ... faulty?" asked Dariya
" I'm Sure! " Inspector categorically stated, " If it had not been in good condition, then we would not have found where the Ripper was hiding."
" Okay, okay! I'm convinced! Well, let's take a look."
" Do not rush! I have to find out if there is radiation in the next five kilometers," said the Inspector, after which he entered back into the TARDIS and left from there after a minute. " The level of radiation is there is anything radioactive here, then it is under a meter layer of lead, which usually hospitals don't have. Although, considering that I don't know much about hospitals, I can be wrong. "
" Wait, how did you stabilize me, after my incident with the Ripper then? "
" Internal technology of the TARDIS. There is nothing difficult in them, I pressed the button and there is no internal bleeding. However, your case turned out to be so serious that these technologies could only stabilize, but not cure. And just imagine, this is just because of running! And these technologies healed much worse conditions"
" I see..." Dasha squeezed out in surprise. "So what about this place? These "veins" look as if they are the cause of a dilapidated building. "
The inspector carefully examined the walls, touched one of the "branches" of the drawing and felt the pulsation coming from Inspector checked another "branch" and got the same thing, tried a third one, but on the opposite side — the same thing, the fourth one on the floor — everything is the same.
" Strange. These are veins. And they are with blood supply. There is clearly something wrong here... Get back to the TARDIS. NOW!"
" What? No way! This mystery also interested me, and I would never stay away! "
" The device is not ready, any surge of adrenaline can instantly kill you. And all the more, we are dealing with a building that has become the foundation for something alive and this is clearly not Terran. "
" Aliens? That is really an extraterrestrial organism? Cool! I'm not going to miss that! Although the Sillurian was a reptile, but he was terrestrial creature, so he does not count. "
" Are you serious? You are threatened with death from almost any load, and do you rejoice that you want to meet some kind of biomass that has infected the entire building? I'm not surprised, that there were problems in your area of patrol"
" Hey!"
" Listen here! Either you stay in the TARDIS in a good way, or I'll lock you there forcibly. There is no third option!" Inspector spoke out seriously and irritably.
" Come on! Do not forget that I can fight, I'm still a police officer " Dasha said, clenching her hand into a fist.
" You will die as soon as you punch me. Your adrenaline level has already risen due to anger. Although not critical," after these words of the Inspector, Daria immediately stopped arguing and removed her fist.
" can I at least keep an eye on what is happening? You're aware of your Martian technology."
" You shouldn't be racist here. Especially if it has anything to do with an extinct military civilization."
" Stop what? " Daria was surprised
" I'll tell you later. Now go into the TARDIS. I will connect the cameras of my glasses to the screen in the TARDIS. "
" Glasses with cameras?" again Daria was surprised when she almost entered the TARDIS
" Come on now," the Inspector said in annoyance, and Daria closed the door of the TARDIS from the inside.
The inspector touched the frame of the glasses, they made electronic sounds, after which a picture appeared on the screen in the TARDIS, and it showed what the Inspector saw. The screen also showed the Inspector's indicators, from his pulse and temperature to two scales on the sides of the screen. Also, round symbols that looked like all sorts of patterns, they spun and walked around the screen.
" Console room, do you copy? " sounded the voice of the Inspector from the speakers of the screen, " Speak just like in normal. In theory, I should hear you perfectly, as you should me."
" In theory?" Dasha asked, sitting in a chair in front of the monitor.
" Oh, everything works great! How is the image?"
" The image is good, just like if I look with my own eyes, and not through a video camera. "
" As it should be. This is the beauty of my glasses. They give me all the information I need. By the way, do you see the interface?"
" I see. And it seems you did not lied about two hearts."
" Oh, shit!" The inspector abruptly reached for the handle and clicked on it, after which the interface on the screen in the TARDIS disappeared.
" Hey, it's gone!"
" I know, I turned it off. I do not have to show information about myself."
" Have you never used this feature? "
" And to whom should I show it? I fly alone, except for the TARDIS itself, and automatic tracking of my indicators is built into it. Okay, I went deep into the hospital," said the Inspector, moving into the left corridor from the corridor was very dark, so the Inspector pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver, pressed the button, and the end of the Screwdriver began to light the corridor.
" There's no Night Vision device in your glasses, or what?" asked Daria.
" These are, of course, multifunctional glasses, but they are cannot see in the dark. I do not know why, but all Time Lords technologies have a lot of good functions, but there is always one flaw. Sound Screwdrivers, for example, cannot open wooden doors and medieval locks."
" This is stupid .And if we have such a door in front of us, do we really need to go there?"
" We use force. God bless that your police skills on knocking out doors will come a handy."
" And I see you don't quite know everything about the police. Doors break out mostly men or special forces. And by the way, can you just dissolve the door with your disintegrator?"
" Disintegrator works only on organic objects. Cyborg and robots will not have a single scratch, not to mention splitting them into atoms."
The inspector heard some sound around the corner of the corridor. He walked carefully to the corner, but before he could touch the wall, a black vein emerged from under the wall paint, slowly spreading along the wall.
" This is strange," said the Inspector, depending on how the vein spreads across the wall and even moving towards the ceiling.
" What is strange?"
" spreading"
" Well ... I see. So what?"
" Again. They spread over the same walls again and again."
" Wait, what?" Dasha was surprised. "How did you ...?"
" See these strips that cut through wall paint with winding lines? This made by these veins. But for some reason, they disappear, but then some more try to envelop the walls again, but no longer follow the paved path."
" So, you want to say that they are not managed directly? That the something or someone who distributes them does not directly control them? "
" Exactly. However, if the wall paint are cut, then why are there no pieces on the floor?" said the inspector, shining a flashlight on the floor.
" Well, here they are, not?" said the girl
" No, it's fresh ones" The inspector clicked the Sound Screwdriver, a blue holographic grid flashed from the same end for a couple of seconds, after which the Inspector continued, " Scanning showed that there are no substances on them that accelerate the dissolution. By the way, about it. Do you notice something with the floor?"
Daria started peering at the floor, then said:
" Veins do not spread across it. At least above the floor."
" Good observation, this is not the thing. The floor is clean. This process obviously lasts for many decades, and the floor must be in a huge layer of dust, but it is absolutely clean."
" Wait. You want to say that..."
" There is someone here. And he is clearly watching this old building."
" I feel uneasy now. Are you sure you want to continue?"
" Of cource I am. There is clearly an unknown alien object, but it is also guarded. I will try to figure out where the vein spreader is. The veins are blood vessels, which means that even a small vessel will lead me to the heart."
The inspector again touched the vein on the wall, after which he felt a terrible burning feeling in his palm, but he saw how he telepathically moved through the vein, through streams of black liquid, but it was chaotic and almost nothing was burning sensation in the palm of his hand could no longer be tolerated, and the Inspector pulled his hand away from the vein. The palm was so terribly sore that the Inspector could not stand on his feet and fell to the floor, writhing in pain.
" Inspector! Do you copy? Do you copy?!" Dasha screamed, but she didn't wait for an answer. She ran out of the TARDIS and moved towards the Inspector. When Dasha reached him, he no longer cried out in pain, but was breathing heavily. She tried to lift him, but the Inspector told her:
" No. The pain is gone," the Inspector said heavily, he rose heavily, as if the whole gravity of the world acted on him, but gradually, he got up lighter, and finally stood on his barely holding legs. Dasha tried to support him, but the Inspector silently rejected any help. He looked at the palm, which touched the vein. There was a black burn mark across the palm of the hand, from which came small black veins.
" This is bad. I think I'm infected."
" Oh no! Let's go backto the TARDIS and fly away from here."
" No way! If this thing will spread inside the TARDIS, then it's over. Only from the outside the veins do not harm, so you can not worry. I will try to do one trick, but I can hardly do it right away, or maybe I won't be able to, until ... It doesn't matter." The inspector began to look at his palm and strongly shake it, as if by force of muscles trying to push the infection out of the palm. He kept shaking his arm, but then he shouted loudly and fell again to his knees.
" Hey! What ... what happened? " scared asked Dasha.
" Nevermind!That means it's too early."
" Okay, I don't care what you want to find will immediately return to the TARDIS and leave this damn place!"
" NO!" The Inspector exclaimed angrily. " I won't give up. I don't care what it is, I'll get to the truth!"
The inspector got up and walked down the corridor. Dasha, grabbing his hand, tried to drag him back to the TARDIS, but they both stopped when they heard fast steps from a near corridor. The Inspector took the Sonic Screwdriver in his left hand and pressed one button, the end of the Screwdriver shone with a blood-red light, and Dasha stood in a defensive stance and prepared for defense. A dim orange light appeared from the corridor, and with it a short height shadow, the steps grew closer and closer. In the end, the owner of the steps out of the corner. It turned out to be an old woman, seemingly under 60-70 years old, slouching, holding a candle in her hands. Her face reflected fear, she was no less shocked than Inspector and Dasha.
" Pe... people?" mumbled old lady " Oh my God! I... I... have not seen people here for a long time!"
" Who ... who are you ?!" The Inspector asked the old woman, trying in vain to hide his surprise.
" My name is ... Victoria. Gorodina Victoria Vladimirovna. I... I was a doctor here... many years ago," the old woman uttered a stutter. " L... let's talk in a more comfortable place? And ... lower your flashlight, young man!"
" I will not, until I get the answers! Do you understand?" said the inspector.
" Oh, you speak like you're from Militzia,*" said the old woman.
" Militzia? I have not heard this name since textbooks that were written in the nineties," Dasha was surprised
" Nineties? Wait, what year is it back on Earth?" the old woman was surprised.
" On Earth? So, you know that you are not on the planet?" asked the Inspector, slightly lowering the screwdriver.
" Son, I'm not stupid. What else did I have to think if I see a black void when opening windows and doors? " said Victoria. She looked at the Inspector's right hand, the palm that was all black and with a startled expression squeezed out: " Oh gosh! Son, did you touch the fresh veins? Alright, quickly follow me to the office! I'll examine!"
The inspector and Daria followed the old woman through the dilapidated corridors of the hospital. After several turns, the three entered a well-lit, clean operating room, which also contained a desk, a bed, a refrigerator and a stove, and the electricity in the room worked very well, illuminating every corner of the operating room, also letting the refrigerator and the stove on which sausages were boiled. The Inspector carefully examined the room, for it seemed to him very strange that electricity only works here, and he also noticed boiling sausages. Dariya was pleased to see a clean and well-lit room where you can relax and rest. Dariya, decided to ask the old woman how to fix her heart problem:
" I'm Sorry, Victoria Vladimirovna. Recently... I was greatly overstrained, and I started having heart problems. I wonder, can you somehow help me with this?"
" What, the young man can not help you?" asked the old lady
" Well ... he has strange ways to help. I want something ... already familiar."
" Of course, darling. Lie down on the operating table. Don't be afraid, I'm not going to cut you open," said Victoria Vladimirovna, with a chuckle, but the Inspector intervened.
" Why should I trust you with the physical condition of my companion?"
" Is there something wrong, son?" scared asked old woman
" Something wrong? You live in an abandoned hospital that is infected with something, you know that you cannot touch the veins, you have excellent power supply, and you also have fresh sausages from somewhere to cook them on a working stove. And also, as I understand it, you live here for decades, Are ya, Grandma? That's what's wrong."
" Eh ... how I ended up here is a long story. I have been here for more than fifty years and naturally, I studied these veins ... on my own skin," Viktoria rolled up her sleeve and part of the hand from wrist to elbow was black as coal. " And where does such a good generator come from in this hospital, I don't know either, same is for the food. The generator appeared right away the next day I was here, and the food miraculously appears in the fridge after I was sleeping. I'm not a fool, son. And obviously I'm not an enemy, if you led all this to this part, so I will assume that there is someone else here. And he clearly has access to planet Earth."
" Then why is this operating room clean? Why didn't the veins spread here?" The Inspector calmly asked.
" I have no first ten years I were on the lookout and waited for the veins to spread here, but after such a long observation, I noticed that they don't want to come here. I do not know why," the old woman answered. " By the way, how did you get here? There's no entrance and exit for this place."
" Well ..." Daria began, but she met the Inspector's scrutiny, as if she were saying that she couldn't talk about the TARDIS. " It's a long story ... and I can obly tell that his is secret."
" Wow, look at that! I am telling you the story of my fifty years in this godforsaken hospital, and here you are arranging the secrets of a galactic scale, " the old woman expressed her displeasure.
" So it ," The Inspector said, looking incredulously at old lady.
" Young man, you obviously need to learn to trust people. Maybe you even still do not trust Dasha?"
- I'll tell you one thing, Grandma. In the whole universe there is no more deceitful and vile creature than Human from planet Earth. And even the most warlike races are better than the Human race simply because they do not treat their own kind as rubbish. No matter how you try, I will not trust you. Do you understand?"
" Well, if you do not want me to help you, then at least give help to do not want her to die from your cynicism?"
" I'll consider this as threat," said the Inspector angrily.
" ENOUGH!" Dasha shouted, after which, the operating room plunged into silence, which was interrupted by gurgling water on the stove. " Inspector, that's enough! I do not want taht the only person who can help us, became our enemy. And I am ready to take a risk and trust this woman, because if not she will kill me here in the operating room, then sooner or later will I'll die from my injury. If you don't want to be here like this, then go by yourself and investigate these damn veins!"
There was a deathly silence in the room, all three of them looked at each other, waiting for some a result, the Inspector was the first to resist and said:
" Good. I will go. But first, I'll make sure that... she didn't give you something that would kill you."
" I agree," said Dasha, turning her gaze to Victoria Vladimirovna, waiting for her action.
The old woman went to the old medical cabinet, where there were still bottles with medicines for operations. She opened the cupboard, and took out a bag for a dropper, in which there was a golden liquid. Victoria hung the bag on the dropper, and while Dariya was lying on the operating table, the Inspector scanned the fluid with a Sonic Screwdriver, but did not see anything dangerous and poisonous, only medicinal and non-conflicting drugs. After that, he allowed the old woman to put a dropper in Dariya. Her eyesbegan to close themselves and she start to feel dizzy, after which she fell asleep. The Inspector finally warned Viktoria Vladimirovna: "If something happens to her, I will find you wherever you hide and you'll answer for this with your life," then he turned around and left the operating room.
The Inspector walked around the corner of the corridor, then stopped and began again to strain his right hand. The hand was shaking from this, but the Inspector kept straining it. Suddenly a golden spark leapt out of my hand, hurting the Inspector. He groaned and fell to his knees. The hand was covered in black, but it didn't hurt or spread since he looked at it last time. The Inspector gatheed his strenght, got up and caught his breath. He examined the walls on which the veins looked like branches of a charred tree, just as hard, dry, and cracked. The Inspector remembered that the old woman was talking about the young veins, not really trusting her, but the intuition says that this information is 100% true. He decided not to risk a second hand and put his right hurted hand to the largest of these dry veins. This time, the hand was not burned and it was possible to safely trace where these veins come from and from whom. Mentally moving against the flow of black blood cells, which were surprisingly still moving, the Inspector saw how long these veins were stretching. Suddenly the cells began to move faster, which means it is close to the center from which the blood appears. But the Inspector stumbled upon a crossroad between the six places from which blood was flowing from all of them, only for some reason he could not move further along one of the six passes, so the Inspector decided to do it not through telepathy. He headed to that very spot, being guided by this very vein, for which he grabbed. Walking along dark and quiet corridors, the Inspector turned on the flashlight in the Screwdriver to make it easier to follow the vein. Vein led to ward 97, which was boarded up with boards, but from it were veins on all surfaces except the floor. The Inspector realized that there was an answer to what was happening with this place. He prepared a Screwdriver, turning on the disintegrator and aiming for the boards, shot at them, however, only one board could split, because the others had covered the veins. What emits these veins, clearly defended and did not want that someone knew about it. The Inspector was surprised that the veins were able to absorb the disintegration beam, protecting the boards from damage. The inspector scanned these veins, but the result was negative, the scanner could not even determine their composition. The Inspector, knowing that he had nothing so far that could even hurt his veins, turned and walked back towards the operating room.
On the way back, the Inspector's attention was riveted on the basement, which, of all the places in the corridors of the hospital, had emitted light, although this had not happened and carefully going down the steps, waiting for any trick, the Inspector looked at everything that might interest him. For example, this is that the walls were not covered with veins, and everything looked very fresh, it did not seem to him that the paint of the basement of the hospital could have lasted longer than in the hospital itself. Going down to the end of the steps, the Inspector saw that the shelves were full of fresh food, water, medicine, and even more gold fluid in the drip bags. Neither the shelves nor the floor were covered with dust, everything looked quite clean for the basement. The Inspector was not at ease from this place, there was nothing more interesting in the basement, neither the boiler, nor the electrical panel, which was even weirder. The Inspector turned to rise, but right on the last rung of the stairs was Viktoria Vladimirovna, calmly standing and looking at the Inspector.
" What the hell?" The Inspector cried out in surprise. " Of course, I knew that you were hiding something, but what could you sneak up at that age? I definitely didn't expect it, even though it's clichéd."
" So you'e found this basement. I thought the mechanism was working," the old woman said still calmly.
" Which mechanism?"
" God know which! Something about perception, I do not remember the exact name."
" Is that so? Where did you get it? And do not hide that you do not know who I am. You know very well who we are and how we came."
" Eh... since the revelations have gone, let's go to the operating room. Dasha should already wake up." sighed Victoria, not waiting for the Inspector, began to walk up the stairs. The Iinspector followed her, holding the Sonic Screwdriver at the ready.
After returning to the operating room, the old woman sat down at her desk, the Inspector sat down on the second chair, and Dasha was still sleeping.
" Apparently she needs a little more time to recover," said Victoria Vladimirovna, looking at her watch. "I didn't think that such a strong girl could run so high in running."
" When a killer pursues you, which is several times stronger, faster and more agile than you, you only think about how to survive, and not about what you capable of. I don't think you could do the second thing."
" Inspector, I'm an old woman. I'd rather surrender myself to death than try to survive in a situation where I would be a burden. Chase, flight, disaster, and so on - this is where I am a burden."
" It all depends on you. Now tell me what kind of liquid you injected her? Where did you get the Perception Filter? Where do you get fresh food, water, electricity and this very liquid? And how did you know about us? Dasha, from all this, needs to know only the last two questions."
" Eh... fine. Let's take it in order. The liquid is, strange as it may sound, a therapeutic drug for droppers. It helped me to cure lung cancer and stopped the spread of this... Dark Blood in my hand. This your "Perception Filter" appeared only this morning, a note was attached to it with the name of this thing and instructions that it should be hanged in the basement so that... you would not find it. Food, water, medicine, and the rest always appear when the supply runs out. The basement was always lit, veins did not spread into it, and neither did it get dirty and dusty. I myself do not know why, honestly. And about you both..."
At this moment, Dasha on the operating table began to move and gradually wake Inspector and old lady interrupted the conversation and approached Dasha. She rubbed her eyes and yawned, finally waking up.
" What? Why are you both standing over me? You know that watching a sleeping person is very weird?" Dasha said in a sleepy voice.
" Are you ok?" Inspector asked Dasha
" And what? I didn't feel that way... never! It was as if I was born again with a completely new organism!" Dasha said joyfully and cheerfully, but the Inspector said nothing, only grunted.
" Are you feeling well, Dasha?" asked Victoria Vladimirovna. "Neither headache nor chest pain?"
" I said yes... wait. How do you know my name? I didn't tell you about it!" Dasha suspected.
" Apparently the drug has restored and your attentiveness." said The Inspector "Just, listen."
The Inspector told Dasha that Viktoria Vladimirovna was saying her name. Several times. Then, he told about the door that he was hiding the center of the spread of Black Veins throughout the building and that he could not even break through it's defense with a disintegrator. He also told about the basement, where there were preparations, fresh food, and also about someone who supplies all this, and the fact that this same "Supplier" this morning brought a certain "Perception Filter" to look away from Dasha and the Inspector from the basement. Dasha was surprised, she could not believe that they had been welcome to where they were waited for, and the fact that she trusted the old woman and the fact that she gave to pour in a certain drug, but the Inspector immediately reassured her, the drug has no flaws and that really therapeutic drug.
Victoria Vladimirovna, after listening to all this, decided to talk about how she found herself in this position for fifty or more years. She started by saying that she was a doctor in this very hospital, she worked there for a year and already knew a lot, but one day, on the way to work, she saw five boys of eleven or twelve, covered with black veins and small blisters with the same color. These children were immediately sent for examination, but this did not even helped to find out what this disease was. This went on for three weeks and it was decided to send them to quarantine. After many years, the boys were eighteen years old and this day became the most nightmarish for the whole hospital. The door to the quarantine ward was blocked by a black liquid wall. It was decided to evacuate the hospital, but during the evacuation an explosion occurred that was so strong that the walls began to crack and pieces fell off, and one of the pieces of the ceiling hit young Victoria on the back of the head, knocking her out, when she and a group of other doctors evacuated. When she awoke, she began to look for a way out of the hospital, but when she opened the front door, she saw impenetrable blackness, and panic began to cover her, she began to look for other exits — through windows, emergency exits, and the hospital garage, but they ended in the same thing — black emptiness. She spent several days in the operating room, which miraculously remained intact, as the former, she could not sleep and had nothing to eat, in the end she was very weak, but she also did not forget to treat the wound on the back of the head. On the third day she heard that something was scraping in the corridor, she hoped that someone had come for her, but it turned out that the paint of the walls and the ceiling was pouring in, and the fact that they were pouring it shocked her. Black veins crawled through the paint. Young Victoria was so frightened that, without hesitation, she began to run away, ran not for long, because she stumbled on her own leg and fell to the floor. She had a hard time getting up, because she was exhausted from insomnia and hunger, she put her right hand on the wall, but then she got a burning pain in her palm. It turned out that there, where she rested, there was still a fresh vein and the whole palm was black. Because of the burning pain in her palm, she decided to return to the operating room, where she could treat the wound. But none of the drugs helped, and young Victoria began to feel even worse, and it was not about hunger. She began to spit blood and it scared her wildly, she began to look for her symptoms among the books and, using the still working medical equipment, she soon diagnosed herself with lung cancer, from which she wept with grief. For her, life suddenly collapsed, her dream of becoming the best doctor of the Soviet Union, her family, her friends, all this disappeared in an instant and she lost all meaning in life. She had already dreamed of her fast death, and even thought to lean fully against the wall with the veins, so that it would end her suffering. But she did not dare to do this, as if something told her that there was more to live for than, although she did not understand why, and for the first time in many days, she fell asleep.
When she woke up, she noticed a box, a watch and a note that told her about the items in the box - there were fresh apples in it, as well as that very bag for a dropper with a golden preparation. It was also said in the note to put this bag on dropper and go under the dropper herself, and after that - go to the basement. And the watch so that she could orient in time, but the watch showed how many days, months and years she spent here, this watch were obviously not ordinary. The note has not been signed. Young Victoria did everything as stated in the note - she lay under the dropper and immediately fell she woke up, she felt amazing lightness in her body and soul, the black wound on her arm became a simple black stripe on her palm and did not hurt anymore and this prompted her to once again get tested for cancer and while the result is being prepared, she decided to go down the basement, but she was wild be careful. The basement turned out to be completely untouched by black veins and well lit. And the basement itself was full of supplies and several more bags of gold medication and she was glad to have such a sudden breakdown. After a few days, the result about the cancer was negative, she was cured and this raised her spirit even more. The next fifty years she spent in this hospital, having equipped the operating room of the surviving furniture. Electricity illuminated only the operating room and the basement, everything else broke, rotted and covered with veins. And then one morning, she had another note with the key, which was signed as "Perception Filter" and the note said about visitors, which surprised the already old Victoria.
" And you know the rest, guys," Victoria Vladimirovna finished the story.
" This is just terrible to live alone for more than fifty years," Dasha said with regret.
" So this is it ..." the Inspector muttered and thought.
" What is it, son?" asked Victoria.
" This is not an accident. All this was arranged from the very moment of the appearance of four boys in your life, Victoria Vladimirovna. And all this is exactly the same that helps you live here. And I bet he will stop as soon as you finish your part of the deal that you did not agree to," said the Inspector, after which he paused for a while and suggested: " Fly with us! We will deliver you at the same time, from where you were forcibly taken away, the only thing that we can no longer fix is your age."
Victoria Vladimirovna looked down at the floor and was silent on the Inspector's proposal, but she looked up and asked:
" So will you destroy this black "plague" or you'll just sit in here?" such words surprised Dasha and, surprisingly, the Inspector, but both of them looked at each other and answered:
" Yes!"
Victoria Vladimirovna wished good luck to both of them, and when the Inspector and Dasha went to the very door, old Victoria remained in the operating room to Inspector and Dasha walked through the corridors of the old hospital, coming up with a plan of action, but Dasha's question was decisive:
" By the way, why is your ... Sonic Screwdriver sonic?" She asked.
" Because it can emit different sound frequencies that can open a lock, hack a computer, and also hack or disable any is how sound waves emit, scanning for what sound waves are aimed at ... I hope I explained clearly," the Inspector explained. " And why are you asking?"
" Well ... I'm not very good at physics and biology, but if these veins and their sources are forms of life, won't the sound of high frequencies harm them?" Daria suggested, and the Inspector suddenly stopped. She, stopped too, noticing this and wondered why. The Inspector said in a whisper:
" Of cource... Of cource! Gosh, yes! My stupid memory has forgotten such an elementary garbage! Yes, sound waves can harm, but also you and me, but will not kill anyone, so YOU have to finish these four sources."
" M-me? But... but if this sound can hurt me, then probably I'll have a concussion or I'll go deaf."
" Basicly, both things, but I'm SURE on one hundred percent for this. So hold this." The Inspector took the headphones out of the inside pocket of his coat and handed them to Dasha.
" Uh ... how did they get in there? Honestly, this is Deus Ex machina" she commented.
"The pockets of all Time Lords, just like the TARDIS, are also bigger inside than outside," the Inspector explained. " And I have only one pair, but do not worry, I can be a bit contused from loud noises and get off with light blood from my ears at worst. And these headphones are able to withstand the sounds of a nuclear bomb, if located in the epicenter."
" Uh, okay. And why the hell do you have only one pair?" asked Daria
" I was not going to have a partner, you know. Okay, get the gun ready and put on the headphones. As soon as the door breaks, run in and shoot. Okay, let's move on.
" Wait, what gun? I don't seem to have it with me," Dasha said, but the Inspector silently handed her a weapon. "You know, I could have arrested you for stealing property, especially a police officer's one."
And here is the door. It is still covered with not just a layer of liquid, but dense black wall. The Inspector took the Sonic Screwdriver from his pocket, and Dasha hecked the gun and put on the headphones. She stood closer to the door, and The Inspector was directly opposite to the door. The Inspector aimed the Screwdriver to the door and turned it on. An empty corridor began to fill in with a long sound, but it only put waves on the liquid black wall hiding the door. The Inspector switched the volume to a higher one, vibrations started to go along the walls and the old windows of the hospital also began to tremble, but the wall remained as it was, and the Inspector decided not to hesitate and turn on the volume even more. The effect of it was like an earthquake. Several windows cracked, and dust and old paint fell from the ceiling, and the black wall began to give way, but not enough to squeeze at least a hand. The Inspector realized that there was no choice, he reluctantly pressed another Sonic Screwdriver button, and the whole floor was struck by a powerful sound wave, as if it was an explosion from a bomb. Glass windows broke into fragments and flew away into a black void, the walls of the hospital began to crack and entire pieces of the building began to fall off, but pieces was falling not at Inspector, but away from him. Dasha was shaking a lot, as if she was shaken like a bottle of water, but the Inspector was shaking very much in his legs, he could barely hold on. He was bleeding from his ears and nose, he squinted and gritted his teeth, like on the frost. A black smoke began to emanate from the screwdriver, and it began to heat up, but progress was visible. The wall shattered into pieces and the door behind her too. The veins from the walls began to fall like dry branches and immediately turn into dust and scatter in the direction of the sound waves. In the end, the black wall and the door completely scattered into pieces, the Inspector barely opened his finger, but he could not reach the button of the Screwdriver, the sound pressure was strong, and the sound had already entered the chamber, the Inspector in that instant tried to think of something and he thought for three seconds before, like a heavy weight, threw the Screwdriver over himself and let go, letting it fly into the corridor, he gave a signal to Dasha "GO!" and he headed towards the Screwdriver, barely moving his legs. Dasha immediately entered the ward and noticed four figures, almost completely covered with black liquid, but their faces were free and surprisingly still young. Dasha hesitated. She never thought that it would be so difficult and scary to kill people without permission. She stood in front of the nearest figure, pointing a gun at his face. And then the head of this figure turned toward Dasha. She had tears when she saw the exhausted face of this figure. His eyes were wide open, and his gaze was as if dead, but the eyes themselves were not like those of a dead person. Dasha's tears ran down her cheek, her hands trembled, and she did not want to do it. And then the figure spoke in an incomprehensible language, which made Dasha shocked.
" De-shchi-zu... ki... nu... " the figure said in a hoarse figure continued to repeat these words.
Other figures joined first figure. All the same words and the same hoarse voice, and the tone of the voices changed, from a calm to a more pitiful, as if begging Dasha to kill them. Dasha, through her tears, she drew off the moment, but kept the scope right in the forehead of the figure. The figure this time said only "Ki" and Dasha, looking into the eyes of the figure, shot. The bullet hit the forehead, and blood poured from the wound, but not black, a red black liquid hardened and cracked. Dasha was breathing heavily, and her hands trembled violently, and tears flowed incessantly. Turning to the other three, she saw that they were looking at her, smiling and strangely exhaling. This, in addition to Dasha's quiet hysteria, frightened her, she squeezed the trigger and killed the second, third and fourth, their "cocoons" hardened, and red human blood flowed from the wounds. Dasha fell to her knees and screamed at the top of her lungs. It did her good, she no longer wanted to cry, and this made it possible to stand on her feet again. She seemed like a zombie came out of the ward, the walls of the hospital collapsed and the floors collapsed in places, but she didn't care, she slowly and unsteadily walked down the corridors without noticing how she walked past the Inspector, who lay face down on the floor, drenched in a small pool of blood kept going from his ears and nose. She walked along the corridor like a zombie, until Victoria Vladimirovna climbed to this floor. She asked in panic what was wrong with her, where the Inspector was and that the hospital was collapsing and she had to find a safe place, but Dasha did not answer and did not pay attention to the old woman. Victoria grabbed Dasha and repeated the questions, but Dasha was unchanged and then the old woman gave Dasha a slap in the face, but without reaction, she made a strong slap in the face this time that Dasha's head turned to the left, but returned to the starting position, but the old woman decided to do very a strong slap in the face that Dasha fell, and the hand of the old woman fell ill. Dasha blinked, she felt dryness in her eyes and throat, which she coughed from.
" You are finally woke up, huh?" Victoria Vladimirovna let out a sigh of relief.
" Huh?What? " coughing, said Dasha. " Where am I?"
" In the same hospital. Come on, we need to find a safe place, " the old woman said in a hurry.
" What? Why?"
" The hospital is crumbling. Everything stopped working when you started a strong explosion here or what was it? Never mind. Where is Inspector, Dasha?" after these words of old Victoria, Dasha stopped and ran towards the ward, but there was no one in the corridor, and at the place where the Inspector lay, there was a hole in the floor, but Dasha did not even know that the Inspector was lying on this spot.
" He should be around here somewhere!" She examined the neighboring wards and the corridor, but did not find a sign of the Inspector, and realizing that he was not there, she ran after Victoria Vladimirovna, catching up with her already on the next floor. " Where are we going?"
" To the basement!" answered the old woman. "He told me to take refuge there in case of anything."
" He?" Dasha asked.
" The one who supported my life before your arrival and who, presumably, pulled me here!"
But before she could finish speaking, she stopped in front of the destroyed door and the descent to the basement. From this, the old woman began to panic, but Dasha immediately realized that she needed to escape to the TARDIS. She said this to Victoria Vladimirovna, and she, having calmed down, agreed, because it was the last chance of their salvation. Running along the corridor of the first floor, Dasha noticed blood drops on the floor. Suddenly the floor collapsed, and Victoria Vladimirovna hung on its edge, and Dasha quickly reacted and grabbed her hand. With her foot, finding a foothold so as not to fall herself, she tried to pull out the old woman, but Victoria didn't even tried.
" Please hold on! I'll get you out of this!" Dasha shouted, with all the powers to the old lady.
" Do not try, dear," the old woman replied calmly. " Apparently this is where my end will come. Let me go, honey."
" NO!I HAVE ALREADY SEEN THE DEATH OF THE FOURTH TODAY, I DON'T WANT TO SEE ANOTHER ONE!" Dasha shouted at the top of her throat, tightly holding Victoria's hand.
" Let go," she repeated in that same calm voice. " Save yourself. My time is over, and yours has just begun. And if you will ever be in Volgograd in 1976, find my mother. Tell me that I love her very much. Support her in this difficult moment. Goodbye..."
The second free hand of Victoria Vladimirovna pressed the pain point on Dasha's hand at the thumb, from which Dasha's thumb let go of the old woman's hand and, together with the fragments of the building, she fell into the black abyss of the space where they were. She, before disappearing, smiled and closed her eyes. Dasha was amazed by such an act. But she didn't have time to grieve. Floor was becoming more unstable, and Dasha ran towards the reception of the hospital where the TARDIS was located. The last words of the old woman were spinning in her head, while she was running, she could not believe that she had done a trick with pain points, which led to the death of a human person. The corridor seemed to her very long, and she seemed to run forever, but soon, dodging pieces of the ceiling and holes in the floor, she reached the reception desk, where the TARDIS also stood, but the door was open. Dasha ran into the TARDIS and saw that the Inspector was lying face up on the floor. All his clothes, the lenses of his glasses and his face, mixed with blood, were covered with a layer of dust, but he was breathing and it seemed that he was sleeping. Dasha, not wasting time waking the Inspector, closed the door of the TARDIS, and ran to the console. But she didn't knew what she had to press, so that the TARDIS would move.
" Listen, TARDIS!" she began, " Your "master" is asleep or unconscious, but there is no time for his awakening, and the place where we stand is literally bursting at the seams. I do not know how to control you, but I know that you yourself can get us out of here on autopilot. I ask you, take us anywhere to Earth and someday, but e hurry. Do it at least for the sake of your "master"!"
The TARDIS remained silent in reply, Dasha sighed and sat down directly on the floor of the TARDIS console room, and looking at the screen on the wall, she saw how the debris fall from above and how the floor falls. But suddenly, the image on the screen slowly began to disappear, and the TARDIS buzzed. Dasha realized that they were leaving, she smiled, being glad that they finally left this place and laughed a little. She closed her eyes, feeling wild tiredness and a desire to sleep.
She awoke from the fact that the TARDIS made a solid sound and vibration. Dasha, having had a little rest, got up easily. The Inspector still lay and slept. She glanced at the screen. There was a lane overlooking the street, Soviet cars of the seventies drove along the road, and excited people in official suits were walking along the street. Dasha looked at the screen on the console itself and saw the date. - June 15, 1979, as well as additional information: House opposite, second floor, first door to the right of the stairs. Dasha understood that this is apparently the very date when the incident with the hospital occurred. Dasha, left the TARDIS and saw the usual home district of the Soviet city. Smoke billowed in the sky, and Dasha realized that it was not smoke, but dust, which means the hospital was on that side. But she went to the house opposite, as it was written. People were afraid of what they saw in the sky and wondered what had happened. Some rushed home immediately to hear the news. There was a crash sound from the hospital's location, but Dasha thought only of the words that she would say to Victoria's mother. She climbed to the second floor of a residential building and rang the doorbell to the right of the stairs. She heard quick footsteps and a quick opening of the door lock. The door opened, and Dasha saw an elderly woman who was very much like Victoria Vladimirovna, but the woman from a frightened face turned to serious and asked:
" Girl, who are you? What do you want?"
" I ... I came to apologize," Dasha squeezed out, "Oh, she loved you very much. I... could not save her, I am very sorry."
Victoria's mother understood what the stranger said. She immediately rolled tears, and she reeled and sat down on a chair in the hallway, she began to cry bitterly. Dasha saw the maternal grief and was touched by it. For some reason, she understood that she feels when a mother loses her child, whom she raised for many years and lost in an instant. Dasha was about to leave and tried to close the door, but the woman stopped her: "Stop! Come in, tell me all the details. I want to know everything from the woman who last saw my daughter. " She said this with tears in her eyes, but with her eyes and without words she said that she wanted to know everything and Dasha agreed. Till the evening of the same day, Dasha told everything, but having missed moments with time travel, Dark Blood and the Inspector, also securing a couple of moments not to mention moments where you cannot meet or see in an ordinary hospital during a state of emergency. Victoria's mother, naturally, cried during the story, but she was proud of her daughter and was grateful that Dasha helped her and tried to save her. She treated Dasha after tea and said the following:
" I do not want to seem rude, but ... don't get ever close to my door "
" I think I understand where you are heading with this..." said Dasha.
" I want to accept her fate and that this deep wound would heal, but you, without offense, will pick this wound," Victoria's mother said figuratively.
" Good. I understand. You will never see me again," agreed Daria.
" Fine. Finish your tea and leave."
Then none of them said a word, and Dasha finished her tea. Soon, the tea in the cup ended and Dasha, after saying goodbye, left the grieving mother, who was looking out the kitchen window. Dasha went to the TARDIS and, making sure that she was not looked at, entered the door.
The Inspector was no longer lying on the floor, but was sitting in a armchair, watching the news about the hospital. But he did not even notice at first that Dasha was back. He barely got up from his armchair and barely moved his legs, walked over to Dasha. The face was still covered in dust and blood. The dusty coat lay on the floor and there's also Sonic Screwdriver
" So ... this is it," said the Inspector, speaking aboutthe incident. " You're well done. I would've talked to this poor woman much worse, and she clearly would not have invited me for a cup of tea."
Dasha didn't answered. She didn't feel the best feelings for the Inspector after he put her in the place of the murderer of the victims of Dark Blood. She considered the "carriers" to be victims of something evil, and these were just children, which the villain clearly kidnapped and left at the hospital. She silently sat in an armchair and fell asleep, without saying a word to the Inspector.