OMFG GUYS THE NEW EPISODE (HIDE). THIS EPISODE GAVE ME A HEART ATTACK IN A BAD WAY AND IN A GOOD WAY.
HERE TAKE CHAPTER WHILE I FLAIL/DIE
Martha was in the movies section of the library, sprawled out on a very puffy leather couch couch watching Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The Doctor planned to continue their theme park jaunts with a trip to a park based off the trilogy. It was about ten in the morning relative time and she was only about thirty minutes into it when the peacefulness of the TARDIS was suddenly interrupted.
The ship gave a violent shudder, an alarm blaring through the halls. Martha was thrown clear off the couch and all around her she heard the thudding of dozens of books and films hitting the floor. She pushed herself up once the shaking stopped and hurried to the console room. She heard the Doctor call their names and wondered not for the first time if the ship had a hidden PA system. The TARDIS had the decency to make it a quick trip to the console room and she met up with Rose just outside the door.
"Come on!" the Doctor, dressed in his blue suit, shouted from the ramp. "We locked on to a distress signal!"
He pulled open the door and stepped out. A second later they heard him say, "Whoa! Now that is hot!"
The emerged behind him and the moment they stepped out of the console room they were hit with a blast of hot air. They were in some sort of cramped service room, from the looks of it, surrounded by metal. There were machines and piping everywhere and steam wafted up from the floor. The whole place was tinged various shades of orange, as if illuminated by a bonfire, and smelt strongly of sulfur.
Martha gasped, pulling off her sweater, and tossed it back into the TARDIS. "It's like a sauna in here." She was immensely glad that they'd planned to go to a warm planet today, because she'd chosen to wear a tank top and a pair of shorts.
Rose, however, had been in the wardrobe to pass the time when they'd locked on to the emergency beacon, and had on jeans and long-sleeved peasant blouse. She immediately pulled her sleeves up to her elbows and tucked her hair behind her ears. "Where are we?"
"No idea," he said, leaning down to inspect one of the machines. "But these are venting systems. Working at full pelt, trying to cool down, uh, wherever it is we are." He straightened up and looked around the room for an exit. "Well, if you can't stand the heat."
Rose and Martha followed him over to the door. He pushed it open and stuck his head out experimentally then motioned that it was safe for them to follow. They stepped over the threshold and looked at the hallway stretching out before them, divided into smaller sections by doorways shaped similarly to the one they'd just stepped through.
"Oi, you three!" a man shouted as three people leaped through the nearest opening and came barreling towards them.
"GET OUT OF THERE!" the woman leading the group commanded.
"Seal that door now!" The two men pushed past and shut the door, sealing it quickly, and the woman stopped in front of them.
She was taller than both girls, wearing a black sleeveless shirt and workpants, and her brown hair stuck to her sweaty skin. "Who are you?" she demanded. "What are you doing on my ship?"
"Are you police?" the younger man asked.
The Doctor looked at the woman in confusion. "Why would be police?"
"We got your distress signal," Martha explained.
"If this is a ship why can't hear any engines?"
"It went dead four minutes ago," the woman said.
"So maybe we should stop chatting and get to engineering," he snapped then added, "Captain."
The captain took a deep breath and as she exhaled, a klaxon began to blare and a computerized voice announced, "Secure Closure Active."
"What?" the captain exclaimed.
"The ship's gone mad."
A shorthaired young woman, not much older than Rose herself, came running down the hallway, leaping through the doorways with a helmet and thick gloves in her arms. "Who activated secure closure?" she demanded. "I nearly to locked into area 27!"
Behind her, the door reading Area 30 slammed shut. She ignored it, looking the trio up and down. "Who are you?"
"He's the Doctor, she's Rose, and I'm Martha. Hello," she said, sounding dazed. Rose glanced at her in concern. Martha moved past them almost mechanically towards a porthole where more orange light was streaming in.
Rose felt sweat starting to build up on her forehead and she reached up to wipe it off with the back of her hand. Above them the computer droned, "Impact projection: 42 minutes."
She froze with her hand on her forehead. Beside her, she felt the Doctor stiffen.
The captain swallowed. "We'll get out of this, I promise."
"Doctor," Martha said slowly.
"Forty-two minutes until what?" the Doctor asked.
Martha walked right up to the window, placing her hands on the ledge and peered out, just to confirm what she was actually seeing. "Doctor! Look!"
Rose and the Doctor darted past the captain and joined Marta at the window. The three of them looked out into the light. Before them, burning brightly in the darkness of space, the surface churning and swirling violently was a fiery yellow sun. A star that grew bigger with each passing moment as the ship hurtled towards it. In forty-two minutes the ship would hit it and then they would all die.
In her mind, the TARDIS hummed nervously. The TARDIS was nervous! The Doctor darted away from the window but Rose continued to stare, completely captivated. The way it moved and seemed to radiate menace, it was like the star was…alive. Seconds after this occurred to her, Rose felt something knock against her mind. Hot, aggressive, like it was trying to force its way in. She backed away with a gasp, wrenching her eyes away from the sun. She rubbed them furiously and shook her head.
The forceful knocking continued and she heard at the edge of her mind, faint but full of rage and agony: BURN WITH ME.
GET OUT! She screamed in her mind and the TARDIS's nervous hum turned possessive. The voice fell silent and the knocking tapered off.
She was brought back to reality by the Doctor's pained shout. She whipped around in time to see him go flying back from the door that led to the TARDIS. She shouted his name and flew over to his side. She helped him sit up, curling her hand around his arm. The young woman leaped around them shut the door to the venting chambers, locking it firmly.
"But my ship's in there!" the Doctor protested.
"In the vent chamber?" the younger man asked in disbelief.
The Doctor pushed himself to his feet, pulling Rose up along with him, and rounded on the crew. "It's our lifeboat."
"It's lava," the older man said.
The young spoke up from by the thermostat. "The temperature's going mad in there. Up three thousand degrees in ten seconds and still rising."
"Channeling the air," the younger man explained. "The closer we get to the sun, the hotter that room's going to get."
"What about the TARDIS?" Rose asked.
The Doctor sighed. "She's got shields. Not that they'll do much good if we hit the sun. We need to fix the engines then we can steer the ship away. Simple."
The members of the crew looked surprised, like this idea hadn't occurred to them. The lot of them followed the Doctor down the nearby stairs to the engine room. Ducking under a few lines of thick pipes, they entered a long room full of machines and mechanisms, piping, switches, and miles worth of wiring. The Doctor exclaimed in surprise when he saw the state of the main engines. And while Rose didn't have much knowledge about mechanics even she could tell that the engines were wrecked. It looked like someone had completely gutted them, ripped out wires and springs, bashed parts in.
"Someone knew what they were doing," the Doctor growled.
The captain looked around. "Where's Korwin? Has anyone heard from him or Ashton?"
"No," said the older man.
The Doctor put on his glasses and wandered it over to a computer terminal and started pressing buttons.
"Do you mean someone did this on purpose?" Martha asked coming up behind him. He nodded grimly without looking up.
Fantastic. Just bloody fantastic. Rose put one hand on her hip and wiped her forehead with the other one. That meant sabotage. Sabotage meant there was at least one hostile onboard. As if they didn't already have enough trouble. Trapped on a ship en route with the sun with a person onboard who wanted to make sure they couldn't escape. Definitely what she'd planned to do today.
She watched the Doctor fiddling around with the screen while the captain shouted into the intercom. He glanced up at Rose once and she smiled half-heartedly. The crew rushed through the room, some of them looking for the missing members, others holding up bits of the ruined machinery in disgust and despair.
"Oh!" the Doctor exclaimed suddenly. "We're in the Torajji system! Lovely! You're a long way from home," he told his companions. "Half a universe away."
"Yeah, feels it." Martha said sarcastically.
He ignored her and rounded on the captain. "And you're still using energy scoops for fusion. Hasn't that been outlawed yet?"
The captain and the younger man, who was descending the stairs with a coil looped around his shoulder, glanced at each other guiltily.
She squared her shoulders. "We're due to upgrade next docking. Scannell, engine report."
The older man walked around to the terminal and sniffed then started fiddling with the controls. The computer beeped a few times. "No response," he said after a moment. He left the computer and went to check some of the wiring.
"What?" the captain demanded and took Scannell's place in front of the terminal to check the results herself.
"They're burnt out." Scannel tossed down some of the wiring in disgust. "The controls are wrecked. I can't get them back online."
"Oh, come on," the Doctor chastised, pulling his glasses off. "Auxiliary engines. Every craft's got auxiliaries."
The captain shook her head. "We don't have access from here. The auxiliary controls are in the front of the ship."
"Yeah, with twenty-nine password-sealed doors between us and them," Scannell added. "You'll never get there in time."
"So just override them." Rose suggested.
"No, 'sealed closure' means what it says. They're all deadlock-sealed."
"Of course they are."
"So a sonic screwdriver's no use," the Doctor muttered.
Scannell overheard him and threw his hands up. "Nothing's any use. We've got no engines, no time, and no chance!"
"Oh, listen to you! Defeated before you've even started! Where's your Dunkirk spirit?!" The Doctor turned to the captain. He was beginning to exude the power he always did when he decided the locals couldn't handle things on their own. He stood straighter, his eyes were just a bit darker, and he spoke with authority that usually made people jump at his orders. "Who's got the door passwords?"
The younger man spoke up then. "They're randomly generated. Reckon I know most of 'em. Sorry." He waved. "Riley Vashti."
"What are you waiting for, Riley Vashti? Get on it."
"Well, it's a two-person job—" he reached up behind them and pulled down a pack "—one to take this for the questions, the other to carry this." He pulled down a large clamp and slung the pack over his shoulder. "The oldest and cheapest security system around, eh, captain?"
"Reliable and simple, just like you, eh, Riley?" she countered.
"Try to be helpful, get abuse. Nice."
"I'll help you." Martha reached for the clamp. "Make myself useful."
"It's remotely controlled by the computer panel, that's why it needs two." Riley explained. He headed towards the stairs and Martha started to follow.
"Oi," the Doctor called seriously. Martha turned. "You be careful."
She smiled. "You too. Both of you."
"McDonnell, it's Ashton."
The captain, McDonnell, turned around sharply and went to the intercom. "Where are you?" she demanded into it. "Is Korwin with you?"
"Get up to the medcentre now!" McDonnell glanced up at the crew then ran for the stairs.
The Doctor followed her and Rose started to go with them, but he shouted at her to stay there. She stopped mid-step and sighed, folding her arms. Right, like she'd be any use down here. No idea what century they were in and no idea what to do with the mess around her. She turned around and smiled awkwardly at the two remaining members of the crew.
"So, um, anything I can do to help?"
"That depends," the young woman said. "Can you actually do anything? 'Cos you haven't been very useful so far."
"Sorry, what's your name?"
"Erina."
"Right, Erina. I'm Rose. I don't really know much about engines myself, but I used to date a mechanic and I've been watching the Doctor do repair work on our ship for years. I'm a quick learner. So tell me what I can do to help."
Scannell nodded. "Start picking things up. Anything that looks repairable, give to me. If it's fried, toss it over there." He pointed at a small pile of rubbish.
Rose exhaled, "Right. Okay. She pulled the sleeves of her shirt up higher and wiped her brow again.
She started picking through the bits of mangled machinery. Anything that looked burnt or snapped she tossed into the pile. For every three she discarded there was at least one thing she found that she thought could be saved. Most of them were. It would've been a lot easier to focus if it wasn't getting so hot in there. The Doctor and McDonnell returned a few minutes later with another man who introduced himself as Ashton. The two members of the crew immediately went to work repairing the engine.
The Doctor crouched down next to her and murmured so the rest of the crew wouldn't hear. "Are you feeling alright?" he asked.
"What do you mean?"
"The TARDIS is resilient, but even she has her limits. You told me you can feel what she does sometimes."
"There's nothing from her now. Well, she's nervous, but you feel that too, right?"
He nodded. "Anything else?"
"Earlier, I felt poundin'—" she jabbed her finger at her temple. "—like somethin' was tryin' to get in. It was…angry…and it…I heard it say 'burn with me.'"
The Doctor's jaw twitched and there was a dangerous look in his eyes. "And how do you feel now? You don't feel like you're burning, do you?"
"No, but I am pretty hot."
He reached out felt her forehead with the back of his hand, then he checked her pulse. "You're slightly warmer than you should be given the current room temperature, but that could be for any number of reasons. You're nowhere near as hot as Korwin was, though, so that's good. Can you hear it anymore?"
She shook her head.
"Okay. Let me know if you start getting so hot it hurts."
"I will. Do you have any scissors?"
He started digging around his pockets. "I should. Why?"
"Because I can't deal with long sleeves right now."
"Oh. Good idea."
He pulled a pair of scissors from his jacket pocket and she quickly snipped off the sleeves of her shirt. She noticed the change almost immediately. The material hadn't been too thick but it still felt like she'd shucked a jacket and there was a definite breeze under there. She smiled in thanks. He kissed her forehead then stood up, walking to the intercom. He spoke into it, asking someone named Abi about how Korwin was doing.
"He's under heavy sedation," a female voice replied. "I'm just trying to make sense of this data. Give me a couple of minutes and I'll let you know."
The Doctor made a quick circuit of the room, checking on everyone's progress, then returned to the intercom and called up to Martha. Leaving the line open so they could communicate, he went to help Scannell.
Finished with sorting the bits and pieces she could find, Rose looked around for some other way to make herself useful. Erina recruited her to help lug a pair of thick cables from the back storage room. Then a toolbox. It was grunt work but if it helped avert their course then she didn't care. Martha and the Doctor talked back and forth of the intercom about one of the passwords, something to do with numbers being happy, and the crew got to hear one of the Doctor's infamous high-speed lectures, and all the while the computer issues routine warnings.
Heat shields failing. Collision imminent. Impact in 30:50.
"We need a backup," the Doctor was saying when she and Erina returned to the main engine room. "In case they don't reach the auxiliary engines in time. Come on! Think!" he barked at the crew. "Resources, what have we got?
Marta's voice floated over the intercom again. "Doctor?"
"What is it now?!"
"Who had the most number ones, Elvis or the Beatles? That's pre-downloads."
The crew looked at each other in confusion. Rose was surprised—it had to be a long time in the future if they didn't know who Elvis or the Beatles were.
"Elvis," the Doctor said. "No! The Beatles. No, wait! Um…um…Oooh—" he hit the back of his head furiously. "What's that remix? Um…I don't know. I am a bit busy!"
"I think I've got a mate who might know it." Rose spoke up. "Shareen loves music. She's dated a few musicians, too."
"Call her up, then," the Doctor ordered. "Now, where was I? 'Here Comes the Sun.' No, resources!"
Rolling her eyes, Rose retreated up the stairs so she could call her friend without her overhearing the crew or the hissing of the engine room. She pulled her mobile out of her jeans and scrolled through her contacts, stepping through the junction to area twenty-eight. Luck was on their side, it seemed, because Shareen answered on the third ring.
"Hey, Rose! Are you still in London? Have you seen the news? It's been absolutely mad around here this week. First the hospital, then supposedly this old boffin turned into a dirty great—"
It was best to cut her off before she got going or they'd crash into the sun before she could get a word in edgewise. "Yeah, I saw. Listen, Ree, I don't have long. I need a favor."
She arrived at the door where Martha and Riley waited anxiously. She pointed to her phone and smiled.
"What's wrong?"
Rose swallowed. I'm about to fly into a sun and die. "Nothing, really, it's just a bit of a trivia. Who had more number ones: Elvis or the Beatles?"
"Elvis," Shareen replied immediately.
"Elvis," Rose repeated, "ta."
"Is she sure?" Riley demanded. "We've only got one shot. Otherwise the whole system freezes."
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"'Course I'm sure! C'mon, bit o' faith."
"Right. Thanks, Ree. You're a lifesaver. I'll talk to—"
The intercom crackled to life and the voice of Abi the nurse echoed throughout the entire ship. "This is med-centre. Urgent assistance requested! Urgent assistance!"
"What was that?" Shareen asked.
"It's the telly. I've got to go. I'll talk to you later, bye!" Rose said quickly and shut her phone. Riley was already typing the answer into the computer.
"Urgent assistance!"
"Abi, they're on their way." Erina replied over the com.
Martha, Riley, and Rose looked glanced at each other nervously. There was a faint ding and then with a hiss, the door unlocked and slid open. Martha gave herself a little shake and detached the clamp. They ran on through to the next door and Rose headed back towards the engine room.
"What's happening to you?"
"Burn with me."
Rose's eyes widened. It was the same voice before, the one she'd heard in her head. There it was again, loud and menacing, only this time it was real. She looked over her shoulder at Martha for a moment and saw her friend looking terrified back at her.
"Burn with me."
Rose fled back the way she'd come, leaping over the junction points. She caught herself on a bit of piping and swung around, bounding down the stairs to the engine room, calling the Doctor's name.
"Burn with me."
"K-Korwin, you're sick!"
"Doctor!"
"He's gone up to the medcentre." Erina shouted. "No! Don't go up there!" she added when Rose turned to go.
"BURN…WITH…ME!"
For a moment, everyone in the ship was frozen in place. Waiting, listening. And then Abi started to scream in agony.
The computer droned out the time until impact once more.
The screams ended abruptly.
They waited, expecting to hear her scream again or that voice to growl some more. But all they heard was Martha, asking what that had been. The Doctor told them to just keep going.
Rose gave herself a quick shake, rubbing the sweat off the back of her neck. There was nothing she could do to help and it was stupid to run off on her own if there was something loose on the ship with them that wanted them all to fall. Whatever that was, she was willing to bet it was what had sabotaged the engine.
Besides, she had her own problem. It was getting hotter by the second and she was starting to wonder if it was more than just their proximity to the sun. He'd the TARDIS could handle extreme temperatures but to what extent? What would happen if it became too hot in that room for the TARDIS to handle? For whatever reason, Rose and the TARDIS were somehow linked. If the ship burned would she feel it, too?
"Rose." Rose blinked. Erina was standing right in front of her. "Hey, you in there? I asked if you could help me get these parts."
"Oh, yeah, sure." She nodded, rubbing her forehead.
Erina frowned. "You alright?"
"We're about thirty minutes away from crashing into a star and it feels like we're in a sauna. Yeah, I'm doin' great. Come on, let's get those tools so we can get the hell out of here."
"Where are you from?" Erina asked as they ascended the stairs together.
The Doctor had said this system was half a universe away from Earth and she had no idea how long it would take to reach here from there in this day and age. She figured it was best not to say. "We're just travellers, that's all."
Thankfully, Erina seemed to find this answer acceptable because she didn't press it. "Yeah, well, not me. Not for much longer. I met Riley a few months back while I was workin' as a waitress. He told me comin' to space would be great. Told me I'd have the time of me life. He helped me get this job and now I'm at the bottom of the heap. As soon as we dock on Alpha, I'm outta here."
"I'm sorry."
Erina grunted.
"Everybody listen to me!" Captain McDonnell ordered over the intercom. Rose and Erina paused, looking up. "Something has infected Korwin. We think… He killed Abi Lerner."
So it seemed Rose had correctly guessed Abi's fate. Beside her, Erina grimaced and looked like she might cry and opened a storage compartment. She started pulling things out and handing them to Rose.
"None of you must go anywhere near him, is that clear?"
"Understood Captain," replied Ashton over the intercom. "Erina? Get back here with that equipment."
Looking annoyed, Erina grabbed the intercom control and jabbed her finger at the mute button. "Whatever you say, boss." she growled. "I swear, I hate him sometimes. It's always go there, come back, fetch this, carry these, make drinks, sweep up."
"I know how you feel." Rose grumbled. "I used to work in a shop. Some of the customers—aah!"
While she'd been speaking, Erina had removed the last part they needed and shut the door, revealing a tall, hulking figure wearing a work mask. He breathed heavily, rasping, like a less mechanical Darth Vader. Both girls gasped and stepped backwards.
"Burn with me," the man growled with the voice from the intercom. The tapping sensation from earlier returned. This time it pounded into her skull, causing her temples to throb painfully.
With a cry, Rose dropped the parts and clutched at her head. Heat started to seep into her mind through the cracks steeping from the place where the thing had punched at her shields. She could almost see it: the solid white walls protecting her, the red cracks in it, and fire seeping through.
Burn with me.
"Burn with me."
"No! " Rose screamed and her voice carried a faint echo. In her mind, a wolf howled at the invasion. She skittered away from him, lashing out with one hand. "Get out of my head! "
The thing that used to be Korwin took a heavy step backwards at the force she'd exerted from her mind. The fire receded enough for her to focus. Grabbing Erina's hand, she pulled the startled young woman towards the stairs. They went upwards instead of back down to the engine room. Korwin followed, but they were quicker.
She had to get to the Doctor so he could fix the damage that thing had caused. Next time she might not be able to fight it off and she didn't want to know what would happen if it got all the way through.
SO apparently I'm making the "bad" episodes good. Y'all should review. :D
and OMFG WATCH THE NEW EPISODE.