eight

Word  count: 2133

"You're telling me I can phone anyone, anywhere in space and time on my mobile?" Martha exclaimed, looking at her flip phone.

"As long as you know the area code," he told her with a smile on his face. Martha let out a high pitched laugh. "Frequent flyers' privilege. You've got our numbers on it." Nina frowned.

"Our numbers?" Nina asked.

"Oh, yes," he said, remembering something. He reached inside his blue coat and pulled out her own phone, her iPhone 5. "I soniced you, you've got mine and Martha's numbers too."

"Oh, thank you, good sir," she bowed sarcastically, a smirk on her face. He laughed before the TARDIS shook sending the three of them to the ground.

Nina was quick to check the screen, holding onto the controls to keep herself up.

"Distress signal," she told the Doctor, pushing the screen to him.

"Clicking off!" he yelled, throwing his foot onto the controls, reaching a lever. Nina threw herself on the other side, pushing three buttons and taking a hammer to smash down a fourth one she knew was stuck. "Might be a bit of a --"

The TARDIS shook again, and the three of them were once more on the ground. The Doctor soon stood up.

"Turbulence," he finally finished. "Sorry," he apologized as the two girls popped their heads up and looked at him over the control panel. "Come on, let's take a look," he said, walking to the door.

As soon as they stepped outside, they felt a wave of heat hit them.

"Oof," Nina said. Oh no, she had spent way too much time with Peter.

"Now, that is hot," the Doctor exclaimed, waking out of the TARDIS behind her.

"Thank you," Nina said, using the moment to be funny. The Doctor soon realized what he had said, and she could see him blushing.

"No, that's not--" he cut himself off, realizing he couldn't deny what he'd said because he would be insulting her. "I didn't--" he just gave up when he saw her trying as hard as she could not to laugh. "Oh, shut up," he told her, blushing like a tomato. At least he could pretend it was the temperature that made him red, not his own embarrassment.

"Ah!" Martha exclaimed as she stepped out. "It's like a sauna in here!" The Doctor turned around, looking at Nina while he pointed at Martha.

"That's what I meant," he made himself clear. Nina only laughed even more.

"I know, sweetie," she winked at him. The Doctor scoffed and shook his head, but keeping a grin on his face.

"Venting systems are working at full pelt," he realized, crouching down near the machines in the room. "Trying to cool down... wherever it is we are."

"Well if you can't stand the heat," Nina started, seeing how Martha had already taken off her jacket and thrown it on the ground next to the TARDIS. Nina walked over to a door and opened it, immediately feeling the cooler air hit her face. "Oooh, that's better."

"Oi, you three!" There was a shout as they got through the door. Nina looked over and there were three people running towards them.

"Get out of there!" The blonde woman yelled at them as they ran.

"Seal that door now!" The first man spoke again. He ran past them and closed the door, locking it down.

"Who are you? What are you doing on my ship?" The woman spoke. Nina frowned. She couldn't hear any engines.

"Are you police?" The younger man asked.

"Why would we be police?" The Doctor asked them, obviously confused. Why would the police be getting a distress signal from what looked like a resources ship?

"We got your distress signal," Nina told them.

"If this is a ship, why can't I hear any engines?" The Doctor spoke out.

"It went dead four minutes ago," the woman, the Captain said.

"So we should stop chatting and get to engineering, Captain," said the other man. Suddenly, an alarm went off.

"Secure closure active."

"What?" The Captain and the older man asked at the same time.

"The ship's gone mad!" The younger man said. In the distance, they could see a young woman running towards them, seemingly running against time since the metal doors were closing off behind her.

"Who activated secure closure?" She yelled out, finally reaching them. "I nearly got locked into area 27!" She stepped over to them, and the last door, the one that said 'Area 30', sealed off. "Who are you?" She asked when she noticed the Doctor and the two girls.

"He's the Doctor, I'm Martha, that's Nina," Martha presented them. "Hello." She said, not even caring for the girl and walking right past her to a small window near the door.

"Impact projection, 42 minutes, 27 seconds," the alarm spoke up.

"We'll get out of this, I promise," the Captain spoke up.

"Doctor," Martha's voice called out for him, barely heard by the Doctor who was now speaking to the woman. Nina made her way to the window and froze when she realized what she was seeing.

"Forty-two minutes until what?" The Doctor asked.

"Doctor!" Nina called him, immediately bringing his attention to him. He ran to the window, near Nina, and his jaw fell to the ground when he saw what she and Martha were seeing.

"Forty-two minutes until we crash into the sun."

"How many crew members on board?" The Doctor asked desperately, grabbing the woman's arms.

"Eight, including us," the Captain responded.

"Eight," the Doctor started rambling. "Eight's a good number, isn't it? A good even number goes well with anything. Eight is good"

"I'd prefer if there were zero," Nina commented. She then turned to the captain. "How come there's only eight of us in a space ship this big?"

"We transfer cargo across the galaxy," the older man explained. "Everything's automated. We just keep the ship--"

"Call the others, I'll get you out," the doctor yelled out, running back to the door from which they came.

"What's he doing?!" The young man yelled.

"Doctor don't!" The Captain screamed.

As soon as the Doctor opened the door, a wave of burning smoke was thrown out of the room. The Doctor fell to the ground and the young woman put on her gloves and helmet to go and close the door.

Nina crouched down on the floor to help him up.

"But my ship's in there!" He yelled at the girl who was closing off the door.

"In the vent chamber?" The young man asked.

"It's our lifeboat," Nina told him, starting to freak out.

"It's lava," the old man said. Nina frowned at his attitude.

"Temperature's going mad in there," the young woman said, looking at a thermometer next to the door. "Up 3000 degrees in 10 seconds. And still rising."

"Channelling the air," the young man said. "The closer we get to the sun, the hotter that room is gonna get."

"We're stuck here," Nina said to the Doctor.

"So, we fix the engines and steer the ship from the sun," he said. "Simple. Engineering down here, is it?" He said, running to another room.

"Yes," the Captain confirmed.

"I need to fix the alarm, know how long we've got without having to send someone there every five minutes," the older man said.

"Forty and a half minutes," Nina informed. The man turned back to him.

"How can you know that?" He asked her. She simply shrugged.

"Blimey, do you always leave things in such a mess?" The Doctor exclaimed when they ran down a set of stairs and arrived int he engineering room.

"Oh, my God," the Captain said when she saw the state of her room.

"The hell happened?" The older man asked out loud. The control panel was wrecked.

"It's wrecked," the younger man sighed.

"Pretty effectively too," the Doctor said. "Somebody knew what they were doing."

"Where's Korwin?" The Captain asked. "Has anyone heard from him or Ashton?"

"No."

"Do you mean someone did this on purpose?" Martha asked.

"Korwin, Ashton, where are you?" The Captain asked through the intercom on the wall. "Korwin, can you answer?"

No response.

"Where the hell is he?" She asked. "He should be up here."

Nina approached the computer, one of the only ones who hadn't been trashed. The whole controls had been disconnected and unabled with such precision that for Nina, it was already pretty obvious who had done this, seeing this Korwin was supposed to be here, meaning he is the engineer.

Nina and the Doctor used the computers and a solar system appeared on the screen. No name, no coordinates, but a very distinct set of planes.

"Oh, lovely," Nina exclaimed. "We're in the Toragy system."

"Yes, we are," the Doctor agreed. "You're a long way from home, Martha. Half a universe away."

"Feels like it."

Nina then grabbed the Doctor's arm to catch his attention and pointed at a reading on the screen about the ship. She didn't even have to say anything, he immediately knew what she meant. The Doctor walked to the Captain.

"You're still using energy scoops for fusion," he pointed out. "Hasn't that been outlawed yet?" The Captain and the young man standing next to them tensed up. It obviously had been outlawed, and they obviously didn't care. This was probably why the man had asked them if they were police when they first saw them.

"We're due to upgrade next docking," the Captain said, and it was obviously a lie. "Scan all engine reports," she yelled out to everyone, walking away from the Doctor.

The older man stood in front of the screen for a few seconds, before he sighed.

"No response," he said.

"What?" The Captain said, taking his place in front of the computer.

The man ran to some wires fallen onto the ground, and unfortunately found what he was looking for. The giant wires had been burn out, cut in half.

"They're burnt out," the man said. "The controls are wrecked. I can't get them back online."

"Oh, come on!" The Doctor exclaimed, taking off his glasses. "Auxiliary engines, every craft's got auxiliaries."

"We don't have access from here," the Captain told him. "The auxiliary controls are in the front of the ship."

"Seeing as this is Area 30, I'm guessing there are 29 sealed doors between us and them," Nina sighed, running a hand through her hair. The older man nodded.

"They're all password-sealed, we can't just open them," he explained. "You'll never get out on time."

"Can't you like, override them?" Martha asked.

"No, sealed closure means what it says," the man said. Nina rolled her eyes at his attitude again. How did these people endure this guy? "They're all deadlock sealed. We've got no engines, jo time and no chance."

"Oh, come on!" Nina snapped at him. "Listen to you! Defeated before you even started. Where's your Dunkirk spirit? Stop being such a pessimist, will you? And drop the attitude."

"Who's got the doors passwords?" The Doctor asked the Captain, after smirking at Nina.

"They're randomly generated," the young man told them. "Reckon I'd know most of them. Sorry, Riley Vashtee," he presented himself.

"Then what are you waiting for, Riley Vashtee?" The Doctor asked him. "Get on it."

"Well it's a two-person job," Riley said. "One, it takes to answer the questions, and the other to carry this. The oldest and cheapest security system around, eh, Captain?"

"Reliable and simple," the Captain said. "Just like you, right Riley?" Riley took his massive backpack and put it on. It had a computer and a keyboard on it. Riley shook his head.

"Try to be helpful, get abuse," he whined. "Nice."

"I'll help you," Martha offered. "Make myself useful."

"It's remotely controlled by the computer panel. That's why it needs two," Riley explained.

"Martha," Nina called her. "Be careful." Martha nodded.

"You too."

"McDonnell, its Ashton," the intercom said. The Captain ran up to the little panel on the wall.

"Where are you?" She asked. "Is Korwin with you?"

"Get up to the med-center now!" Ashton said through the com, urgency obvious on his voice. The Doctor, Nina and Captain McDonnell ran past Martha and Riley.

"For goodness sake, how long until impact?" The other man asked as they ran away.

"Thirty-four minutes and thirty-one seconds!" Nina yelled out before following the Doctor.