Shaun sat in a chair next to the tied up Draconians and sulked. Everyone was ignoring him. That stupid Doctor was about to blow away their last chance at getting off the ship before they were all killed, and the others were letting him. Not just letting him, helping him. It was insanity.
He was startled when one of the lizard people, the young one with the goatee, whispered to him suddenly.
"You seem troubled, human."
Shaun narrowed his eyes at the alien with barely repressed distaste. "I'm sitting next to you lot, why wouldn't I be?" he sneered.
"My feeling is the same for you. So much pink skin. Scale-lessness. Soft weakness."
"Look, d'you mind? I'm trying to have a moment here."
"Your troubles go further than that. You do not agree with this one who calls himself 'Doctor.'" The Draconian's mouth curved up at the corners in a knowing smile.
"He wants to get us all killed," Shaun vented, gesturing with both hands in exasperation. "He's gonna eject the lifepods! The ship's goin' down, and he wants to eject the bleedin' lifepods! He's insane!"
The Draconian hissed softly, contemplatively. "He does not have your best interests in mind. He is not human."
Shaun scoffed. "Yeah, well, neither are you."
"I, however, am a proud Draconian. An honest enemy, one who does not use tricks and disguises to deceive."
"I guess that makes us besties, now, does it? Why are you so talkative all of a sudden?"
The prisoner leaned closer to Shaun and lowered his voice even further. "I also do not wish to die on this ship. Let us take a lifepod and leave while we still can."
Shaun stared at him, brow furrowed. "What?"
"I cannot free myself from these bindings. You cannot separate the lifepod from the primary system override and initiate the launch sequence yourself. Let two enemies become allies for a short while, as it serves both our interests."
Shaun laughed darkly. "You want me to trust you?"
The Draconian held his steady gaze, unfazed by the laughter. "It is better to face an open enemy, one whose intent is clear to you, than to face a hidden one whose intentions are opaque, is it not?"
The grin faded from Shaun's face as he considered what was said.
The Draconian smiled again. "You need not even unbind my hands. Move me to the pod and I will tell you what to do."
…
The Doctor knelt by Rose and checked her pulse. She was sleeping soundly on the floor in a row with twenty other fully unconscious patients. There was a smattering of other sleepers among the large group of those resting after being given the amnesia antidote, but most of the formerly-confused crowd were still able to putter around and mumble to each other in a fatigued but technically awake sort of way.
Donna came up behind the Doctor and put a gentle hand on his arm. "How is she?"
He drew back from Rose's wrist and sat on the floor. "Oh, she'll be fine. She's sleeping it off. Give her an hour, and she should be right as rain again."
Donna smiled. "Good. The captain has a report."
Captain Manning was just finishing a systems check on the computer when the Doctor came up to him. The captain stood to attention.
"Doctor! All resources have been rerouted to the lifepods, and the thrusters have been charged as ordered. Cromwell reports all passengers and crew are on deck and accounted for."
"Brilliant!" the Doctor replied, taking his place at the controls. "No time to waste! Tell everyone to hold on. There's gonna be a pretty powerful—"
Before he could finish the sentence, there was a loud roaring sound, and a tremor ran through the entire ship. One of the six green squares on the computer display turned red.
"Blimey," Donna said, one hand braced against the lectern for balance. "Well, that wasn't so bad."
"That… wasn't me," the Doctor frowned anxiously.
"How d'you mean, it wasn't you? That wasn't the lifepods going off?"
"That was a lifepod going off," the Doctor replied in growing alarm. "And on the wrong side of the ship! We've lost one lifepod, and it launched away from the planet, pushing us deeper in!"
"What happened?" Captain Manning exclaimed, frantically running through multiple open systems datafeeds on the terminal next to him.
"Someone ejected a lifepod early. They used all the power on that side of the ship to boost their launch. Two lifesigns on board. Only two people, trading away the safety of all the rest! No one else will be able to make orbit, now – We're too deep!"
Donna opened and closed her mouth, looking hopelessly around the room, somehow already knowing who she wouldn't see. "…Where's Shaun?"
The Doctor gave her a sidelong glance while still working on the terminal, and didn't say anything. There wasn't much to say. He was vexed, of course, and disappointed, but not particularly surprised. But it had to be far worse for Donna. He watched the realization wash over her, followed by denial and then self-doubt. He looked away back at his work. He had people to save. He couldn't afford to be distracted now. Donna was strong; she would manage.
"I don't see Shaun," she repeated more insistently. No one responded or made eye contact. "Has anyone seen Shaun?!"
"Sorry, ma'am," said a sheepish crewman who'd been hanging about silently in the background. "I saw Mr. Temple drag one of the prisoners off in the direction of the lifepods, and didn't stop him." He turned to the Doctor. "He'd said you said to jettison the 'trash' along with the lifepods, a sort of… execution in space."
The Doctor looked at him in disgust. "I wouldn't do that."
"No, sir. I thought… I thought it was a scare tactic to make them talk."
The Doctor shook his head in frustration. "Captain, reroute all power away from the remaining lifepods and into the shields. We're going to need that extra boost in a minute. And get me a pile going of all the small-scale, portable technical equipment on the ship. If I've got to macgyver something, I'm going to need to know what materials I've got to work with."
"Yes, sir!" The captain rushed away to another control panel.
Donna stared straight ahead, mind blank.
"The ejected lifepod has safely reached outer orbit," a crewman at a datastream station informed Donna sympathetically.
She just stared straight ahead for another minute before realizing that that last update had been aimed at her. "Oh. Yeah, thanks," she said numbly. She went to sit down out of the way.