Joanna stepped from behind a crate and stopped smoothly in their path, a silvery blue pistol trained on them. The Tardis stood just behind her. The floor shook, and the Doctor caught himself on Donna's shoulder, managing to stop without tumbling to the ground this time.
"I don't know how you did it, Doctor, but you're going right back in that computer. Now. We aren't finished here, yet."
"Yes we are, Joanna," Nancy said. Joanna's eyes flashed with annoyance as she spotted the younger woman stepping up beside Donna and the Doctor.
"Nancy." Joanna said coolly. "I should have known you'd take his side in the end."
"It's not a question of sides!" Nancy said, her voice squeaking a little with indignation. "The thrusters are gone, Joanna. Nobody can fix it. This place is going down and we need to leave. Now."
The floor shuddered, and this time Donna stumbled too. She reached out a hand to steady the Doctor.
"We've only got a minute left, if that," the Doctor told Joanna. "Come on."
He took a step forward, then froze as Joanna cocked her gun. There were tears running down her face.
"We could have stopped it," Joanna breathed. "The answer is in the data, somewhere. We just needed a few years. Was that too much to ask?"
"It's over now," the Doctor said slowly, stepping toward her again. "There's no point in anyone dying over this. You're not a killer, Joanna."
She let the gun fall to her side. Sniffing, she wiped back her tears.
"No," she said. "I'm not. But you are."
"Not really," the Doctor said. He grabbed her hand and looked back at Donna and Nancy "Come on!"
Towing the surprised Joanna along behind him, he sped to the Tardis door and threw it open. The lights flicked on as he entered and he stopped, beaming, while Joanna looked around herself in startlement.
"Hello, old girl!" the Doctor said. "Did you miss me?"
"Doctor!" Donna urged.
"Right!" He dropped Joanna's hand and leapt up the steps, nearly falling flat on his face in the process but managing to catch himself against the console instead. He quickly adjusted a series of switches and dials on the console. Donna heard Nancy gasping as she stepped into the Tardis and shut the door behind her. The Doctor's eyes flicked up from the console to sweep over each of the three of them as if doing a head count before he finally moved to throw the last lever. The rushing wheeze of the Tardis swelled up around them for a moment, and the Doctor straightened with a self-satisfied grin.
"There we are," he said contentedly.
"Are we safe?" Nancy asked doubtfully.
"Safe as houses! We're on the surface."
"What, just like that?"
"Can you take us back?" Joanna said suddenly.
"What?" the Doctor said.
"Are you crazy? We'll be killed!" Donna said.
"Not back on the station," Joanna said. "But back to it. Near it. I just… it was my project. My life's work. I just want to see it. See how it ends, I suppose."
"Yeah," the Doctor said gently. "Alright."
He adjusted a dial and eased the lever forward. The Tardis breathed. The Doctor came back down the steps and brushed past Donna to the door. Nancy stepped out of his way and Joanna followed him over to it, slowly. He pulled it open.
They were floating in empty space. A blue green planet, not so unlike earth, loomed large before them, and the blackness around them was streaked with bright orange lights, all streaking toward the planet, one light far larger than all the rest.
"That's Lanassa Colony," the Doctor said, pointing toward it. Joanna stared in silence as the little lantern streaked its way toward the planet. It must have been moving terribly fast, but with the distance of space, its mad fall had taken on a peaceful, floating quality. As they watched it seemed to dwindle, consumed either by fire or distance, the light growing slowly dimmer. Then it flared, briefly, like someone blowing on a flame. Orange dust seemed to puff out in all directions, and then all at once, it subsided into darkness.
"Gone now," the Doctor said.
Joanna turned, silently, and regarded the other part of the sky, which was still streaked with tiny orange lights, making their own way toward the surface.
"I suppose those are the colonists," Joanna said.
"And the patients," the Doctor said. "And your staff."
"Did everyone make it?" Nancy asked nervously.
"I think so," the Doctor said. "They weren't quite finished when Donna pulled me out, but they were on track."
"As if it matters," Joanna said. "We're all dead anyway. This plague will keep spreading. In a decade or so, the Stovians will be an extinct species."
"Don't go giving up," the Doctor said. "You've still got time."
"Time to do what, exactly? We'll never be able to catch those immunes again," she said, nodding toward the fading lights, "not now that they know we're after them."
"So don't catch them," Donna said, causing both of them to turn to look at her. "Ask them."
Joanna snorted.
"They'd never agree," she said. "They'd have to give up years of their lives."
"How do you know, if you haven't asked?" Donna said. "Have you talked with them? Some of them want this plague cured just as badly as you do."
"They won't," Joanna said. "Certainly not after what we've already done."
"Maybe," Donna said. "But could it hurt to try?"
Joanna fell silent, thoughtful.
"You might be surprised what happens when you try doing things the right way," the Doctor said. "But in any event," he closed the door and spun, wobbled, caught himself against the railing, then walked back to the console. "It's time to let you and Nancy off." He looked up at Joanna seriously. "Would you like to meet them?"
Joanna looked at him and worked her jaw. Then she took a deep breath, reached up, and re-did the tie that held back her hair.
"Alright," she said. "The right way."
The Doctor smiled, then turned his head.
"Nancy?"
Nancy shrugged. "I don't suppose she'll need me, anymore. No more biocomputer system to deal with. I'd like to go home and see my folks, if you think you could manage."
"Not a problem," the Doctor said. "Well. I can probably guarantee the town, the house…" he trailed off. Nancy giggled.
"That'll do."
The Tardis vworped one last time, and Donna and the Doctor were alone in the time vortex. He fiddled a few more controls and then looked up at her.
"How are you doing?" he asked her. She smiled.
"I'm good," she said.
"Memory coming back at all?"
"Slowly," Donna nodded. "It's all bits and pieces still, but I'm figuring it out." She came around the console to sit on the bench next to where he was still standing.
"It'll all come back, eventually," he said.
"There is one thing, though."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow.
"Oh?"
"Did you know?" Donna asked. "When you agreed to let them plug you into that thing, did you know you'd be able to control it?"
"Oh. No," he said. "No, not really."
Donna smiled at him.
"Thank you," she said.
The Doctor gave her a smile that was pleasantly surprised.
"You're welcome," he said.
"But don't you dare do something like that again, you idiot!" Donna all but shouted. The Doctor took an involuntary step back. "We could both have been stuck there for years, you realize that? What would mum and granddad have thought? And not just us, but all those people, too!"
"Well, yes, but…" the Doctor sputtered. "Donna, you would have died!"
"You could have thought of something else!"
"And so could you!" the Doctor said. "If it hadn't worked out the way it did, if I hadn't been able to wake up and control that computer, you would have figured it out eventually. I saw you back there, Donna. You did good."
Donna's tirade left her. She paused a moment.
"Yeah," she said. "I guess I did."
She smiled at him again, and he smiled back.
"So!" he said clapping his hands and spinning back to the console, a motion which caused his knee to buckle and pitch him up against the console. "Ah, blast it all! That is… that is really getting annoying," he muttered. Then his enthusiasm returned. "Never mind. Where to next?"
"Quick stop by home?" Donna said. "I'd like to drop by mum and granddad. You know."
"Of course," the Doctor said, hiding a grimace at the mention of her mother.
"Then… someplace with a beach," she said. "And no computers!"
The Doctor grinned.
"Brilliant!"