Nina ran off as soon as she felt like her legs could support her weight. When she passed by the engine room, she spotted Scannell and McDonnell, both staring at a wall. When Nina approached them, she spotted the black silhouette on the metal wall, and her heart sank.
7.
Nina and Scannell tried to make the generators work once again, to harness their energy. They couldn't. Something had hacked into them, they wouldnt be a le to reroute them.
"Korwin?" McDonnell's voice suddenly called out, hesitantly.
"It's your fault," the creepy alien voice called out, sending shivers down Nina's spine.
"McDonnell get back," she warned.
"What do you mean, it's my fault?" The Captain asked.
"It's your fault, now burn with me," he yelled. He went to reach for his visor, but Scannell was faster and he opened the ice vents and a freezing cold wind fell right on top of him. Korwin screamed as his body froze, and he fell to the ground with a thud.
8.
"Nina!" The Doctor's voice came in through the comm. "Ashton's heading in your direction! Hes been affected just like Korwin," he explained.
9 it is, then.
Dont get me wrong, Nina wasnt heartless. On the contrary, she cared, and she suffered with the burden and the loss of people she barely even knew. But there just wasn't time to be emotional now. Not when there were still people very much alive in this ship, and it was in her duty to save then. Although, she did know one thing : bodies were dropping left and right around her. This couldnt be a coincidence. She didnt believe it was, and probably, neither did the Doctor.
Nina stood up, ignoring the worried look from Scannell and McDonnell. She reached the intercom and pressed the button before speaking into it.
"Korwin's dead," she said, her voice lacking of emotion. The Doctor didn't answer.
Nina walked back to the engines and sat by the steps of the engine room stairs. She watched as McDonnell sat back next to her husband's body.
"What did he mean, it's your fault?" Scannell asked McDonnell. She was about to touch her husband's face, but Scannell pushed her hand away before she could do so. "What are you doing? Don't touch him, he's infected. You don't know how it spreads."
"You murdered him!" McDonnell yelled at him, a dark look in her eyes.
"He was about to kill you," he argued.
"He recognized me!"
"He didn't," Nina chimed in. The two snapped their heads in her direction. "What recognized you was whatever was infecting him. I told you he wasn't himself anymore." Nina finally looked at them. "He recognized you because he blames this whole thing on you. Now, why would he do that?" She asked. Before the Captain could answer, the Doctor's voice came over the comm again.
"Scannell! I need a spacesuit in area 17, now!" He yelled out. Nina froze. The vision she had seen on the TARDIS had the Doctor in an orange space suit, and he was the one yelling burn with me with the deep, creepy alien voice. Before she could even react, Scannell was gone to fetch the spacesuit.
"Tell me, captain," Nina called her. McDonnell looked up from her spot on the ground. "Your spacesuits wouldn't happened to be of a bright orange colour." McDonnell's silence gave Nina her answer and her face fell as she gulped a little too loudly.
Nina stood up, telling McDonnell to stay put, exactly where she was. She decided to go after Ashton. As soon as she spotted him, she froze, thinking of a genius plan. None came to mind.
"Ashton!" She called out. The man turned around and spotted her on top of the stairs. The man followed her into the med-center, where she hid behind a machine.
As soon as he walked into the room, Nina popped up from behind the thing, pushing him into the statis chamber. She didn't calculate that she wasn't nearly tall enough to both hold Ashton down and press the button to set the temperature to absolute zero. Luckily, McDonnell soon came into the room and understood what her plan was. The woman ran to te panel and set the temperature to -273.15°C. Nina held the man down for a few seconds, almost screaming out in agony with the cold burning her skin. As soon as she felt the man had stopped moving underneath her, she pushed herself back, and fell onto the ground.
"I told you to stay where you were," Nina managed to get out in between breaths. McDonnel scoffed and offered her a hand to pull her up. Nina gladly took it.
They two of them got up and once they reached a corridor, Nina holted.
"You go and help Scannell," she told the Captain. "Try and get to Area 1 as quickly as you can. I'll go help the Doctor with whatever it is he is doing," she said. McDonnell didn't even argue. She agreed it was the best plan.
Nina ran to Area 17, where Martha had said that she had gotten stuck in an escape-pod. She reached the place just in time to witness the Doctor coming back from the airlock decompression.
He grunted and struggled to take his helmet off. Once he managed to do that, he fell to his knees, his face scrunched up in pain.
"Doctor!" She called out, running to him. As she neared him, he fell to the ground, grabbing his stomach in agony. Nina kneeled down beside him, managing to turn him around to face her. "Look at me, what's happening?" She asked him.
As soon as he turned around, Nina saw how his eyes were glowing gold. But it didn't look like when her eyes glowed gold. His eyes were shining in a hostile manner, and it sent a shiver down her spine to see him like this. At the same time, Martha came up from behind her, seeing the Doctor in a state she had never seen him before.
"Stay away from me," he sneered at her, breathing heavily through his mouth, almost as if he couldn't catch his breath. He obviously wanted her to stay away so he wouldnt hurt her, but Nina knew better. Nina watched with pity in her eyes as he tried to fight back whatever it was that was trying to take over him.
"Shut up, I'm not going anywhere," she said, grabbing his hands in support. She didn't know what to do, but the last thing she wanted was for him to panic.
"What's happened?" McDonnell's voice said behind her. Nina helped the Doctor to sit up, leaning against a wall behind him.
"It's your fault, Captain McDonnell!" The Doctor yelled out before Nina could say anything. Nina looked back at McDonnel and saw her fully shocked face.
"Riley! Get down to area 10 and help Scannell with the doors," she yelled. "Go!"
"You mined that sun! Stripped its surface for cheap fuel! You should have scanned for life!" He threw his head back, hitting it against the wall. He grabbed his stomach with his arm, holding it tightly. Nina placed a hand on his forehead, noticing how dangerously hot he was. Nina froze as she finally realized what had happened.
"I don't understand," McDonnell told him.
"Doctor, what are you talking about?!" Martha yelled out. Nina placed her hands on the sides of his head and used a tiny but of her regeneration energy on him. He had done it on her earlier, so this was the least she could do. The Doctor relaxed under her touch momentarily.
"That sun is alive! A living organism!" Nina explained to them, letting the Doctor catch his breath. "They scooped out its heart, used it for fuel, and now it's screaming!"
"What do you mean? How can a sun be alive? Why's she saying that?!" The Captain panicked.
"Because it's living in me," the Doctor snapped at her, the pain obviously coming back to him. Nina wish she could help more, but she couldn't just keep using her regenaration energy on him, not forever. She needed to find a way to help him.
"Oh, my God," McDonnell whispered, placing her hands over her mouth. She had finally realized what she'd done. The Doctor let another pained scream when Nina's hands left the sides of his head.
"Humans!" The Doctor yelled out, his tone angry. "You grab whatever's nearest and bleed it dry!" He let out another scream. "You should have scanned!" He praticly screamed.
"It takes too long! We'd be caught! Fusion scoops are illegal--"
"Oh, shut up!" Nina suddenly yelled out, cutting her off. "Help me get him to the med-center! We need to freeze him!"
"What?"
"She's right, you have to keep me below -200!" The Doctor yelled out, then letting out a loud groan as the creature burned him inside out. "Freeze it out of me!" He pleaded. "It'll use me to kill you if you don't! The closer we get to the sun, the stronger it gets!" He screamed, his voice breaking as Nina saw how much he was fighting the thing back. She grabbed one of his arms and pulled him up, but wasn't able to hold him as the two of them fell to their knees.
"Med-centre! Quickly! Quickly!" She yelled at the two women. They didn't move. "Help me!" She yelled at them. The two finally obliged, almost in fear of what she might do if they didn't.
Martha and McDonnell both grabbed into the Doctor's arms and ran to the med-center as Nina ran in front of them, ready to catch the Doctor if he fell.
Once they got to the med-center, Nina left them to go and learn how to use the machine. She knew how use it as a scanner, but she hadn't used it to freeze anyone before.
"Nina? Nina?" She heard a voice calling out to him hesitantly. She looked back to see the Doctor kneeling on the ground, his hands in front of him, searching for her. "Nina, where are you?" Nina dropped the instructions manual and ran to the Doctor.
"I'm right here, I've got you," she said, passing her arms underneath his, helping him to stand up. He yelled out in pain as he finally got to his feet, his knees threatening to buckle down. "It's me, let's get you here," she said as she dropped him onto the Statis Chamber. "Minus 200, remember?"
"No, you don't know how this equipment works! You'll kill him!"McDonnll argued. "Nobody can survive those temperatures!"
"They're not human," Martha told her. "If she says he can survive it, then he can!"
"Let me help you, then," she offered.
"You've done enough damage," Martha told the woman angrily, stepping between the Doctor and her.
"Hey, hey, you're alright," Nina called out to him. Nina took the instructions manual and shoved on Martha's arms. She got the hint and started to look through it to find out how the machine worked. He shook his head.
"Ten seconds, that's all I'll be able to take, no more," he pleaded. The Doctor yelled out once more, screaming Nina's name while at it. "Aah. AhhHHH, Nina!" He yelled, reaching to grab her hands. She grabbed his left hand and ungloved it, grabbing his hand in her own.
"Yeah?" She asked him. She felt his hand shaking in her's and did her best to stabilize it, show him that she was right there.
"It's burning me up. I can't control it. If you don't get rid of it," he yelped out, his voice darkening by the second. "I could kill you. I could kill you all," he said, his voice not his anymore. He was sounding exactly like Korwin had. Exactly like he had in her vision. Nina decided to be strong for him, and ignore it, since his face was suddenly taken over by fear, and his voice came back to normal. "Nina, I'm scared, I'm so scared," he whimpered, his voice faltering as he sounded like a frightened child.
"Just... stay calm. You saved me, now I return the favour. Just... believe me," Martha said, pulling Nina away from the Doctor. "Nina, I can't find it," she whispered in a lower voice, not wanting to make him even more afraid.
Nina took the manual from her hands. "Just stay with him," she made Martha promise.
Nina read through the instructions manual as Martha spoke to the Doctor.
"Its bloody killing me!" The Doctor yelled in a pained voice. "Then what'll happen--"
"That's enough!" Martha tried to soothe him. "We've got you!" Another scream.
"There's this process. This... this thing... that happens... if I'm about to die," he tried to get out, but screamed again.
"Quiet now," Nina came over, placing a hand on his face. He grabbed it with all of his strength. "I'm not going to let that happen. Ready?"
"No," he whimpered.