"Good morning, Donna Noble!"
For a moment, Donna wondered if the marquis had found a voice, but when she blinked the sleep from her eyes she found that Joanna was striding through the door. Joanna tossed a bundle of clothing onto the table beside Donna's bed.
"And how are we feeling this morning?"
"Oh, just lovely," Donna said irritably.
"I've found some new clothes for you – I'm afraid your other shirt was ruined, although I've had the rest of what you were wearing sent to your quarters. Once you're up and dressed we'll take you there."
"Thanks, I guess," Donna said.
Joanna slipped out into the hall while Donna got changed. It was a little awkward getting the shirt on – her right shoulder was just a bit stiff – but she managed and went out to rejoin Joanna.
"How do I look?" Donna asked, spinning herself around to show off the borrowed clothes.
"They fit you well enough," Joanna said. "Shall we?"
"Lead on."
They headed on down the corridor, which was surprisingly quiet. None of the rooms they passed appeared to have occupants, and only one other staff member passed them in the hall, pushing a cart of clean towels.
"For the best hospital in the sector, you don't seem to get a lot of patients," Donna observed into the silence.
"Most of our patients are on the other side of the hospital, unfortunately," Joanna said.
"The other side?"
Joanna sighed, looking down at her feet rather than at Donna.
"Well, I suppose you had to find out eventually. Our hospital is divided in half. This is the clean side, where we see to the medical needs of the colony residents and staff. The other side is the hazard side. That's where we treat the plague victims."
"Plague?" Donna asked alarmed.
"Relax," Joanna said. "It doesn't affect humans."
"Wait," Donna said. She stopped in her tracks. "You mean…" She looked Joanna up and down, incredulous. "You're not…"
Joanna looked over her shoulder and laughed at the expression on Donna's face.
"Oh, heavens no! You're the only human here, Donna. We're Stovians."
"But… you look…"
"It's a fairly common body plan among sentient species. I'd have thought you'd be used to the idea, traveling with a Time Lord."
Joanna started walking again. Donna stared after her a moment longer, then hurried to catch up.
"So, this plague then. It's a real problem on the station?"
"No, thankfully," Joanna said. "We've kept it out of the residential area. But that has made us a rather desirable destination for people planet-side looking to escape the disease. We get hundreds of applicants a day and we have to screen them here."
"And the sick ones end up in the other half of the hospital?"
"We do what we can for them here, but most of them we have to send back," Joanna explained. "We just don't have the facilities for the volume of cases we see."
"Isn't there a cure?" Donna asked. Joanna said nothing. "I'm sorry."
They continued down the hall in silence. Up ahead, a pair of large, metal doorways appeared. The marquis above the rightmost one proclaimed "To Residential Sector: Decontamination Required." Beside the door was a young woman with strawberry blonde hair, looking intently at a tablet she was holding. She looked up as they approached.
"Hello!" She said with a smile. She switched the tablet off and slid it into a pocket of her lab coat.
"Donna, this is Nancy. Nancy, Donna."
"Hello," Donna said, taking the hand Nancy had extended.
"Lovely meeting you," Nancy said.
"Nancy has been good enough to agree to show you around the station for a few hours," Joanna said. There was a sternness in Joanna's tone and in the look she gave Nancy as she said this that made the younger woman seem to wilt slightly. She nervously pushed her glasses back up her nose.
"That's very kind of you," Donna said reassuringly, wondering what was going on between these two.
"Now, I'm sorry to leave you Donna, but you are in capable hands and I'm afraid I've got a lot of work to do here."
"Of course," Donna said politely. "Don't let me keep you."
Joanna nodded with satisfaction, then turned and strode back down the hall, high heels clicking purposefully against the floor.
"Don't mind her," Nancy said. "She just gets very… focused, sometimes."
Donna nodded.
"Would you like to see your quarters first?"
"I suppose," Donna said. Nancy smiled.
"Right this way."
She pushed a button to the side of the big, metal doors. The marquis overhead switched to read "Biolock Opening" and then the doors slid open. Donna followed Nancy into the tiny room beyond. The doors slid shut behind them.
"This is the decontamination chamber," Nancy explained. The marquis over the next door flashed "Decontamination commencing" and a bright light suddenly filled the room.
"I thought we were in the clean half of the hospital?" Donna said. Nancy nodded.
"That's right. But we'd rather be safe than sorry, so you have to go through a biolock like this to get from any part of the hospital section to the residential section. If something were to happen and the clean half got contaminated, we'd rather it stay there than make it any farther."
The light switched back off and the message over the door changed. "Cycling atmosphere" it proclaimed. Vents opened on opposite sides of the room, and in a moment Donna could feel a breeze moving through the chamber toward the hospital side.
"The atmospheres in the residential and hospital areas are kept completely separate," Nancy explained. "In another moment virtually none of the air in this room will be the air we came in with."
Sure enough, the vents closed themselves and the far door finally slid open. "Welcome to Lanassa Colony, Residential Sector" the marquis scrolled. On the other side of the door Donna was greeted by a blast of green. Tall, leafy plants in pots lined the walls, with a few curving sofas nestled in among them. "Welcome to Lanassa Colony" was painted in bold letters across the archway on the other side of the room.
"Well, welcome to your new home!" Nancy said with a smile. Donna smiled back politely.
"Thanks," she said. "But I won't be staying long. Just until the Doctor gets back."
"Oh," Nancy said. "Right. Of course."
Donna felt a flash of irritation.
"Why does nobody around here seem to think he's coming back?" she snapped. "You don't know him! He'd never leave someone behind! No matter what was standing in the way, he'd find a way to get back! So don't give me that… that… patronizing look!"
Donna finished her tirade and was finally able to look at the short woman standing in front of her again. Nancy looked like she was about to melt into the floor.
"Sorry," Donna said. "I just-"
"No," Nancy said, surprisingly firmly. "No, I think you're right. I think… I think your friend left because he had something very important to do, and once he finishes it he'll come back for you."
Donna narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"Did you talk to him? Did he tell you something?"
Nancy shook her head quickly.
"I only spoke to him the once, just before he left. That was just the sense I got from him, you know?"
Donna let out her breath in a short sigh.
"Yeah, I know," she said. "Anyway, I suppose you were giving me a tour?"
Nancy's smile returned immediately.
"Right this way!"
She strode on across the little atrium and through the archway. There, they entered a hallway which split in two, curving away in either direction. Nancy turned left and started down the hall. The walls were made of dull metal and the floors tiled, but more of those potted plants placed at regular intervals down the hall gave the place a livelier feel.
"All the private rooms are on this ring along the outside," Nancy explained as they went, passing a succession of closed doors. "The common areas are in the center. There's the cafeteria, ballroom, gaming area, library, swimming pool…" she counted the station's amenities off on her fingers as she listed them. "Pretty much anything you could ask for."
Nancy stopped in front of one of the closed doors and pulled a key card out of her pocket. She slid the card into a slot by the door which beeped cheerily in response.
"And this," Nancy said, throwing the door open with a flourish. "Is your place. For however long you need it."
Donna accepted the key card from Nancy as she stepped past her and into the room. It wasn't much. There was a sitting area with a sofa, a coffee table, and a television. There was a small kitchen set up off to one side of the sitting area, and across the sitting area from the door Donna could see her bedroom.
"Well?" Nancy chirped. "What do you think?"
"It's very nice," Donna said. "I'm sure I'll enjoy staying here."
Nancy smiled.
"Here, let me show you where they've put your things."
Nancy led Donna into the bedroom, where a large wardrobe stood against one wall. Nancy pulled it open to reveal a modest assortment of clothing hanging inside.
"Joanna already picked up some things for you to wear," Nancy informed. "But if you need anything else, don't hesitate to let me know."
She closed the wardrobe and then pointed to the back corner of the bedroom, where there was another door.
"Your shower is back that way."
They returned to the main room.
"There's a few things for you to eat in your kitchen," Nancy said. "But most of the residents enjoy eating together in the cafeteria. I'm sure you'll want to get to know them and make some friends. And this," Nancy said, picking up a remote and turning on the television. "Is your computer."
The screen lit up and resolved itself into a soothing blue background with the words "Welcome Donna Noble" written across it. A number of icons ringed the screen.
"You can get books and movies, submit a maintenance request, call other residents, search the internet, pretty much anything you can think of from here."
"Can it make calls outside the colony?" Donna asked eagerly.
"Sorry, I'm afraid not," Nancy replied.
"Oh," Donna said, disappointed. Idiot, she told herself. How would you even call the Doctor, anyway? Donna looked around her new sitting room, wondering what to do with herself now. There was a depressing sparseness to the room. It had all the furniture Donna could have wanted, but lacked any sort of personal touch. It didn't have the feel of a room that belonged to anyone, and Donna had absolutely nothing she could use to correct that lack. The only things here that she owned were the clothes she'd been wearing when she stepped off the Tardis. Minus one shirt.
"If you'd like," Nancy said, seeming to notice Donna's listlessness. "I could show you to the cafeteria now so you can meet your neighbors."
Donna smiled with relief. Something to do!
"Thank you. That would be very nice."