Fic: Two Coins, Silver 5/10 (Doctor Who; Realignment 'verse)
Story Title: Two Coins, Silver (5/10)
Series Title: part of the Realignment universe
Author: butterfly
Summary: It's not exactly the honeymoon of anyone's dreams.
Pairing: Doctor/Rose
Rating: PG-13.
Warning: AU after Doctor Who 3x13 - "Last of the Time Lords". Some plot elements and lines from "The Voyage of the Damned", written by Russell T Davies.
Previous Parts: One; Two; Three; Four.
Two Coins, Silver
“I've got to reinforce that,” Alonzo said, only moments after Rose had clicked off the comm. “You're showing through again.”
“You've got that field set up for the Doctor?” Rose asked, bracing her hands back against the console so that he could reach her midsection. She could see it now too, a small but spreading dash of red against the white of the bandage. At least it wasn't hurting much - the med kit that Alonzo had grabbed had had some painkillers that he'd insisted on giving her.
“Just about. I'm not going to let you bleed out while I finish, though,” he said, frowning a bit as he held more clean cloth against the growing stain on her stomach and pressed down. “I'm sorry that we don't have better supplies up here, ma'am.”
“It's Rose. Just Rose,” she said, trying to hide her wince from him. Pressure was a good thing, she reminded herself. “And you don't need to apologise. I'll live.”
“If you don't, I might not,” Alonzo said, but he was smiling. “The Doctor... is he...”
“My husband,” Rose said. Despite the dire situation, a tiny thrill ran through her when she said the words. “We... travel around and fix strange problems. It's sort of our job. Well, it would be, if we got paid.”
“Did you know what would happen?” he asked, brow furrowing. “Is that why you came up here?”
“I was warned that something about this ship was dangerous, but apart from that, I'm just as lost as you are,” Rose said. She was going to need to avoid being shot in the future, she decided firmly. It left her feeling far too faint. “We'll have to work through it together.”
“The Doctor seemed very certain that he would be able to save us,” Alonzo said, taping the bandage into place. “Can he?”
“He's the most brilliant man I've ever known,” Rose said, quietly but with certainty. “He's solved worse problems.”
“I'm not sure whether that's reassuring or terrifying,” Alonzo said. He ran his hand over her stomach once more, checking the edges. “This should be good for a while, yet. I think I didn't get the first one on tightly enough. Still, in my very inexpert opinion, you should be all right.”
“Thank you,” Rose said, giving him her best smile. He smiled back at her hesitantly, and then he flushed deeply and turned away to finish his work on the... the containment field.
Rose finally worked up the courage to look over at where Demins' and the captain's bodies were, still trapped under the heavy metal beam that had crushed them when the impact had shaken the ship. Alonzo had checked on them before she'd even regained consciousness and had told her that they were dead while he'd been bandaging up her wound.
She'd killed that man. By being here and asking him to help her, she'd killed Demins. And yet, would he have been any better off if he'd stayed below? He might have still died the same way.
She wouldn't have found the bridge as quickly without his help, that much was certain, and Alonzo might very well have been dead by the time she'd gotten there. No matter how she tried to plan it out, she couldn't think of anything else that she could have done.
“That should do it,” Alonzo said. He relaxed the slightest bit - he could see that it was obviously doing what the Doctor had said it would do, then.
“What's our next step?” Rose asked, when he just sort of stayed there in a slump. “Is there... a specific protocol for emergencies?”
“I'm supposed to find the highest ranking officer and follow their orders,” Alonzo said, straightening up again. “In the event that I am the highest ranking officer, which would seem to be the case, I need to assess the situation.”
“Can we run a ship diagnostic?” Rose asked. That was what they always did on shows like Star Trek. The TARDIS didn't seem to be able to do that, but perhaps this ship could. Of course, the TARDIS might have been able to originally and the Doctor had managed to wreck the function sometime over the last nine-hundred years. It wouldn't surprise her. It wasn't that the Doctor didn't have impressive alien tech - it's just that it was usually a bit broken.
“That panel over there,” Alonzo said, pointing to a display that, sure enough, had a diagram of the ship on it, with most of the lines flashing in different colors. Mostly red, which Rose reckoned was a bad sign. “That's what it does - we've got so many damaged systems that it's a shock we aren't all dead. The hull was open to vacuum in several places, though someone managed to restore the oxygen shield in at least one area.”
“Probably the Doctor,” Rose said, feeling a quick surge of pride. “What else can we do? Could we see if there are more survivors?”
“I can reverse the scanner,” he said, thoughtfully. Then he looked over at her, his eyes narrowing. “You should sit before you fall down.”
“It's not that bad,” Rose said. It really wasn't. She'd been leaning against the panel for several minutes now and she felt much better. “I can still help.”
“As the only member of the crew in this room, I'll make that call,” Alonzo said, with a surprising firmness. He took her by the shoulders and sat her down on the raised platform near the back of the room. “Sit. Try not to bleed to death before your Doctor gets here.”
“Yes, sir,” Rose muttered, leaning back against the wall. It was rather nice to rest a bit, but she couldn't completely relax, not knowing that the Doctor was still in danger and that she couldn't do anything to help him. She hadn't realized it until this very moment, but this was precisely why she'd never been able to fully settle into life in the parallel world - without being to hold onto the Doctor, to touch his hand and to know that he was safe, she'd stayed tense. She'd tried to run it out and shag out it out and it had never worked. She could have lived the rest of her life on Pete's world without the Doctor, but always with that restless ache at the back of her mind, reminding her that he would need her and she wouldn't be able to help him.
Martha and Jack were wonderful - and she was so glad that the Doctor had found Jack again - but Rose knew that it wasn't arrogance that made her know that the Doctor needed her. Her, Rose Tyler, not just someone mucking about in the TARDIS with him. He... needed taking care of - he thought he could handle anything the universe might throw at him, but he was wrong. He needed someone to point out when he was wrong or rude or lonely, because he wouldn't do anything about it himself. He'd just let himself be miserable and never realize that fixing it might be as simple as letting himself trust someone else long enough for them to comfort him.
Being inside the Doctor's head had been... overwhelming and she couldn't remember barely any of it anymore, but something that had lingered was the cold ache that he'd lived with without her. When she thought of it, it was like a clammy fog pushing against every inch of her body and the emptiness of it still made her want to shudder.
She rubbed her fingers together, dried blood flaking off. She could have died today. And then the Doctor would have been alone. Would he have retreated back into that howling void, this time for ever?
That mysterious blonde woman had told her to be careful. Maybe... maybe one of the reasons that she needed to be careful was because of what the Doctor might be capable of if he lost her again. He'd picked her over the universe and she needed to not forget that. It was far too high a price just for one former shopgirl to keep the man she loved.
Though, now that she was thinking of that blonde - what good was having warning if Rose still hadn't been able to stop this from happening? If that woman had been able to be a bit more precise - 'be careful, because the captain has betrayed the passengers and crew by taking down the shields and letting a meteoroid shower hit the ship' - Rose and the Doctor would have been able to save dozens, possibly hundreds of lives.
If the Doctor were here, he'd tell her that they couldn't know. They shouldn't even have had the small warning that they'd been given. They were supposed to handle things without assistance from the future. And while he was probably right about that - causality and such - that didn't change the guilty, angry feeling inside her that wished she could go back and shake Miss 'tell-nothing' until she gave some specifics. Who she was and what she was going to mean to Rose in the future would make for a nice start.
“Ah, here we go,” said Alonzo, accompanied by a bit of beeping from the screen in front of him. “We've got fifty to sixty survivors in different places on the ship.”
“We should try to contact them,” Rose said. Much as she liked Alonzo, it would have been nice to have had someone with a bit more experience doing this with her. “What will we say?”
“We could tell them to come to the bridge,” Alonzo said. Rose nodded, then realized that he wasn't actually looking at her. Well, he was definitely on the right track - if he could tell that this was the best place for the survivors, it probably was. And the Doctor would be here soon and that would help. “It's probably the safest place, even now. I'll check and see who the closest-”
Before he could start, the comms whistled for their attention.
“This is the bridge,” he answered. “Where are you?”
“This is kitchen number five,” came the answer. Alonzo pressed something on the screen and then nodded - his profile was to her and she could see the corner of his mouth turn up in a smile.
“I believe that I've found you,” Alonzo said. “There are six of you?”
“That's us,” the man on the other end said. “Are we the only ones left alive, sir?”
“No,” Alonzo reassured them. “We've got more out there. Listen, I've already got a group headed for the bridge. You should do that, too. Don't go port side, there's no way. Can you make your way starboard?”
He was properly taking charge now. It was nice, especially since Rose wasn't entirely sure that she was up to the job at the moment.
“We're stuck. The doors have sealed. We can't get out.” There was a pause and Alonzo glanced at toward Rose - and she was sure he was wondering the same thing that she was. How were they going to save these people? “No, wait a minute. It's opening!”
Rose breathed out a sigh of relief.
“There's someone on the other side,” the Kitchen Five man continued. “Oh, the Host. We've got Host. The Host are still working.”
“Oh, that's brilliant,” Alonzo said, but Rose's breath caught in her throat.
One of them nearly broke Lady Jamilla's neck, Demins had said. They weren't working right.
“Tell them to clear a path for you,” Alonzo said over the comms. He was so thrilled and Rose hated to be the person to take that away from him, but her heart was pounding in her chest.
“I'm not sure that's a good idea,” Rose said, not as loudly as she'd have liked. She cleared her throat before continuing. “Tell them to get out of there.”
“Why would I do that?” Alonzo asked, not turning to look at her. “That's what the Host exist for - to help the crew and passengers, whether with information or labour.”
“Get them out of there,” she said, as strongly as she could, using the railing to pull herself up to her feet.
Alonzo looked at her, exasperation clear on his face-
Then the screaming started. Alonzo's eyes widened and he whipped back to the screen, desperately asking for Kitchen Five to report, please report.
“It's the Host,” Rose whispered. A shout over the comms confirmed her fears.
Alonzo pressed a button on the screen, must have been switching comms, because he was calling for the Doctor.
“Mister Frame - how's things?” the Doctor said. Only a bit of strain in his voice right now. Rose hated that they were about to add to it.
“I've got lifesigns all over the ship, but they're going out, one-by-one.”
“What is it? Are they losing air?”
“No. Rose thinks it's the Host,” he said, with another terrified look back at her. “It's something to do with the Host.”
The Doctor didn't reply.
“Doctor,” Alonzo said. “Can you hear me?”
Rose let go of the railing and forced herself over to the comms, adding her voice to Alonzo's.
“Doctor! Are you all right?”
More deafening silence.
“Doctor, please answer,” she said, in a whisper.
The comms crackled. “Rose! It is the Host. They've gone berzerk. Are you safe up there?”
“Yes, we-”
A shout from Alonzo interrupted her words. He was racing for the door lever and... outside, some of the Host were lurching for the doorway, intoning the word 'kill' as they moved forward. He slammed it down and the door shut, but with one of the Host's hands part of the way through. He didn't seem to notice it, turning and leaning against the door.
“Alonzo!”
He looked in the direction of her flailing hand and he yelped when he saw the wriggling and grasping hand that was so close to him - he yanked the lever hard around and the door shivered and severed the Host's hand as it shut with finality. He let out a gasping breath.
“Good job,” Rose said, faintly, before turning back to the comms.
“We're safe, Doctor,” she said. “But we've sealed ourselves in.”
She leaned against the panel, her pulse racing. He hadn't answered her yet.
“Doctor? Doctor! Are you there?”
“You shouldn't have stood up,” Alonzo chided as he came over to join her, his hand reaching out to her stomach.
“He's not answering,” Rose said, batting his arm away. If the Doctor wasn't responding, she might need to figure this out on her own and save him. “Those Host... they were saying 'kill'. I'm going to assume that's not part of their normal programming.”
“Of course not,” he said.
“Machines don't spontaneously create new programming,” she continued. Knowing both the Doctor and Mickey, plus working for Torchwood, had taught her that. “Their information can be corrupted, but specifically 'kill'? That sounds like a plan. A plan means that there's a person out there who wanted everyone on this ship to die.”
“Sabotage?”
“You doubt it, after what your captain did?” Rose asked.
“The captain... he wasn't a robotics engineer,” Alonzo said.
“Which means that he was being used,” Rose said. “He was an older man - perhaps something else meant more to him than continuing to live. He might have died for a cause he believed in or because he had nothing to live for or he could have a family out there that he wanted to protect.”
“How would knowing that help us?”
“Because someone thinks that this ship or the people on it should be dead. If we can figure out who, that would help us in finding a way to stop the Host before they hurt anyone else.”
Rose pressed down on her bandage, feeling a bit of an ache now. Too much movement. She hadn't been able to tell, back when she'd been shot, if this technology used projectile or energy-based weaponry. It all hurt the same, but if she had a bit of metal inside her, that could be even more damaging in the end. She was just about to ask Alonzo about it when the comms whistled again.
“Rose, Mister Frame - are you still there?”
“We're all right,” Rose said. “We had a bit of an incident, but we're fine now.”
“What sort of incident?” the Doctor asked, sharply.
“I had to seal the door against the Host,” Alonzo said.
“They've been programmed to kill. Why would anyone do that?” the Doctor asked.
“Rose has been trying to figure that out. It's not our only problem, Doctor. I had to use a maximum deadlock on the door, which means... no one can get in,” Alonzo said. “We're sealed off. Even if you can fix the Titanic, you can't get to the bridge.”
“Oh, I'll get there,” the Doctor assured them. “One problem at a time, Midshipman. What's on Deck 31?”
Alonzo glanced at Rose, looking startled.
“That's down below. It's nothing. It's just the Host storage deck. It's where we keep the robots,” he said. Rose raised an eyebrow in disbelief and then smacked the man in the shoulder. When he looked at her in affront, she waved at the killer robots just outside their door. He turned slightly pink, mouthing 'oh'.
“Hmm. See that panel? Black,” the Doctor said. Alonzo and Rose both shifted at the console, glancing at the section for Deck 31. It was most definitely black. “It's registering nothing. No power, no heat, no light.”
“I've never seen it before,” Alonzo said. Rose bit back a sarcastic reply. It wouldn't help and Alonzo seemed a bit delicate at the moment. The Host had really shaken him.
“One-hundred percent shielded,” the Doctor said. “What's down there?”
“I'll try intensifying the scanner,” Alonzo said, moving away to jab at some more buttons.
“Are you all right down there?” Rose asked.
“We're just fine,” he said. “Tell Alonzo to let me know if he finds anything and... keep those engines going. And... Rose?”
“Yes, Doctor?”
“I'm sorry that I couldn't give you a better Christmas,” he said.
“Doctor - I'm with you,” she said. “It's already the best Christmas I've had in years.”
“I- well, I...” His voice was low and surprised. “Keep yourselves safe up there.”
“I promise,” Rose said. “I'll call you when we find something.”
“I'll see you soon.”
The comms clicked off. Rose took a deep breath and closed her eyes, hoping that the Doctor would be right this time.
Continue to Part Six.
Series Title: part of the Realignment universe
Author: butterfly
Summary: It's not exactly the honeymoon of anyone's dreams.
Pairing: Doctor/Rose
Rating: PG-13.
Warning: AU after Doctor Who 3x13 - "Last of the Time Lords". Some plot elements and lines from "The Voyage of the Damned", written by Russell T Davies.
Previous Parts: One; Two; Three; Four.
Two Coins, Silver
“I've got to reinforce that,” Alonzo said, only moments after Rose had clicked off the comm. “You're showing through again.”
“You've got that field set up for the Doctor?” Rose asked, bracing her hands back against the console so that he could reach her midsection. She could see it now too, a small but spreading dash of red against the white of the bandage. At least it wasn't hurting much - the med kit that Alonzo had grabbed had had some painkillers that he'd insisted on giving her.
“Just about. I'm not going to let you bleed out while I finish, though,” he said, frowning a bit as he held more clean cloth against the growing stain on her stomach and pressed down. “I'm sorry that we don't have better supplies up here, ma'am.”
“It's Rose. Just Rose,” she said, trying to hide her wince from him. Pressure was a good thing, she reminded herself. “And you don't need to apologise. I'll live.”
“If you don't, I might not,” Alonzo said, but he was smiling. “The Doctor... is he...”
“My husband,” Rose said. Despite the dire situation, a tiny thrill ran through her when she said the words. “We... travel around and fix strange problems. It's sort of our job. Well, it would be, if we got paid.”
“Did you know what would happen?” he asked, brow furrowing. “Is that why you came up here?”
“I was warned that something about this ship was dangerous, but apart from that, I'm just as lost as you are,” Rose said. She was going to need to avoid being shot in the future, she decided firmly. It left her feeling far too faint. “We'll have to work through it together.”
“The Doctor seemed very certain that he would be able to save us,” Alonzo said, taping the bandage into place. “Can he?”
“He's the most brilliant man I've ever known,” Rose said, quietly but with certainty. “He's solved worse problems.”
“I'm not sure whether that's reassuring or terrifying,” Alonzo said. He ran his hand over her stomach once more, checking the edges. “This should be good for a while, yet. I think I didn't get the first one on tightly enough. Still, in my very inexpert opinion, you should be all right.”
“Thank you,” Rose said, giving him her best smile. He smiled back at her hesitantly, and then he flushed deeply and turned away to finish his work on the... the containment field.
Rose finally worked up the courage to look over at where Demins' and the captain's bodies were, still trapped under the heavy metal beam that had crushed them when the impact had shaken the ship. Alonzo had checked on them before she'd even regained consciousness and had told her that they were dead while he'd been bandaging up her wound.
She'd killed that man. By being here and asking him to help her, she'd killed Demins. And yet, would he have been any better off if he'd stayed below? He might have still died the same way.
She wouldn't have found the bridge as quickly without his help, that much was certain, and Alonzo might very well have been dead by the time she'd gotten there. No matter how she tried to plan it out, she couldn't think of anything else that she could have done.
“That should do it,” Alonzo said. He relaxed the slightest bit - he could see that it was obviously doing what the Doctor had said it would do, then.
“What's our next step?” Rose asked, when he just sort of stayed there in a slump. “Is there... a specific protocol for emergencies?”
“I'm supposed to find the highest ranking officer and follow their orders,” Alonzo said, straightening up again. “In the event that I am the highest ranking officer, which would seem to be the case, I need to assess the situation.”
“Can we run a ship diagnostic?” Rose asked. That was what they always did on shows like Star Trek. The TARDIS didn't seem to be able to do that, but perhaps this ship could. Of course, the TARDIS might have been able to originally and the Doctor had managed to wreck the function sometime over the last nine-hundred years. It wouldn't surprise her. It wasn't that the Doctor didn't have impressive alien tech - it's just that it was usually a bit broken.
“That panel over there,” Alonzo said, pointing to a display that, sure enough, had a diagram of the ship on it, with most of the lines flashing in different colors. Mostly red, which Rose reckoned was a bad sign. “That's what it does - we've got so many damaged systems that it's a shock we aren't all dead. The hull was open to vacuum in several places, though someone managed to restore the oxygen shield in at least one area.”
“Probably the Doctor,” Rose said, feeling a quick surge of pride. “What else can we do? Could we see if there are more survivors?”
“I can reverse the scanner,” he said, thoughtfully. Then he looked over at her, his eyes narrowing. “You should sit before you fall down.”
“It's not that bad,” Rose said. It really wasn't. She'd been leaning against the panel for several minutes now and she felt much better. “I can still help.”
“As the only member of the crew in this room, I'll make that call,” Alonzo said, with a surprising firmness. He took her by the shoulders and sat her down on the raised platform near the back of the room. “Sit. Try not to bleed to death before your Doctor gets here.”
“Yes, sir,” Rose muttered, leaning back against the wall. It was rather nice to rest a bit, but she couldn't completely relax, not knowing that the Doctor was still in danger and that she couldn't do anything to help him. She hadn't realized it until this very moment, but this was precisely why she'd never been able to fully settle into life in the parallel world - without being to hold onto the Doctor, to touch his hand and to know that he was safe, she'd stayed tense. She'd tried to run it out and shag out it out and it had never worked. She could have lived the rest of her life on Pete's world without the Doctor, but always with that restless ache at the back of her mind, reminding her that he would need her and she wouldn't be able to help him.
Martha and Jack were wonderful - and she was so glad that the Doctor had found Jack again - but Rose knew that it wasn't arrogance that made her know that the Doctor needed her. Her, Rose Tyler, not just someone mucking about in the TARDIS with him. He... needed taking care of - he thought he could handle anything the universe might throw at him, but he was wrong. He needed someone to point out when he was wrong or rude or lonely, because he wouldn't do anything about it himself. He'd just let himself be miserable and never realize that fixing it might be as simple as letting himself trust someone else long enough for them to comfort him.
Being inside the Doctor's head had been... overwhelming and she couldn't remember barely any of it anymore, but something that had lingered was the cold ache that he'd lived with without her. When she thought of it, it was like a clammy fog pushing against every inch of her body and the emptiness of it still made her want to shudder.
She rubbed her fingers together, dried blood flaking off. She could have died today. And then the Doctor would have been alone. Would he have retreated back into that howling void, this time for ever?
That mysterious blonde woman had told her to be careful. Maybe... maybe one of the reasons that she needed to be careful was because of what the Doctor might be capable of if he lost her again. He'd picked her over the universe and she needed to not forget that. It was far too high a price just for one former shopgirl to keep the man she loved.
Though, now that she was thinking of that blonde - what good was having warning if Rose still hadn't been able to stop this from happening? If that woman had been able to be a bit more precise - 'be careful, because the captain has betrayed the passengers and crew by taking down the shields and letting a meteoroid shower hit the ship' - Rose and the Doctor would have been able to save dozens, possibly hundreds of lives.
If the Doctor were here, he'd tell her that they couldn't know. They shouldn't even have had the small warning that they'd been given. They were supposed to handle things without assistance from the future. And while he was probably right about that - causality and such - that didn't change the guilty, angry feeling inside her that wished she could go back and shake Miss 'tell-nothing' until she gave some specifics. Who she was and what she was going to mean to Rose in the future would make for a nice start.
“Ah, here we go,” said Alonzo, accompanied by a bit of beeping from the screen in front of him. “We've got fifty to sixty survivors in different places on the ship.”
“We should try to contact them,” Rose said. Much as she liked Alonzo, it would have been nice to have had someone with a bit more experience doing this with her. “What will we say?”
“We could tell them to come to the bridge,” Alonzo said. Rose nodded, then realized that he wasn't actually looking at her. Well, he was definitely on the right track - if he could tell that this was the best place for the survivors, it probably was. And the Doctor would be here soon and that would help. “It's probably the safest place, even now. I'll check and see who the closest-”
Before he could start, the comms whistled for their attention.
“This is the bridge,” he answered. “Where are you?”
“This is kitchen number five,” came the answer. Alonzo pressed something on the screen and then nodded - his profile was to her and she could see the corner of his mouth turn up in a smile.
“I believe that I've found you,” Alonzo said. “There are six of you?”
“That's us,” the man on the other end said. “Are we the only ones left alive, sir?”
“No,” Alonzo reassured them. “We've got more out there. Listen, I've already got a group headed for the bridge. You should do that, too. Don't go port side, there's no way. Can you make your way starboard?”
He was properly taking charge now. It was nice, especially since Rose wasn't entirely sure that she was up to the job at the moment.
“We're stuck. The doors have sealed. We can't get out.” There was a pause and Alonzo glanced at toward Rose - and she was sure he was wondering the same thing that she was. How were they going to save these people? “No, wait a minute. It's opening!”
Rose breathed out a sigh of relief.
“There's someone on the other side,” the Kitchen Five man continued. “Oh, the Host. We've got Host. The Host are still working.”
“Oh, that's brilliant,” Alonzo said, but Rose's breath caught in her throat.
One of them nearly broke Lady Jamilla's neck, Demins had said. They weren't working right.
“Tell them to clear a path for you,” Alonzo said over the comms. He was so thrilled and Rose hated to be the person to take that away from him, but her heart was pounding in her chest.
“I'm not sure that's a good idea,” Rose said, not as loudly as she'd have liked. She cleared her throat before continuing. “Tell them to get out of there.”
“Why would I do that?” Alonzo asked, not turning to look at her. “That's what the Host exist for - to help the crew and passengers, whether with information or labour.”
“Get them out of there,” she said, as strongly as she could, using the railing to pull herself up to her feet.
Alonzo looked at her, exasperation clear on his face-
Then the screaming started. Alonzo's eyes widened and he whipped back to the screen, desperately asking for Kitchen Five to report, please report.
“It's the Host,” Rose whispered. A shout over the comms confirmed her fears.
Alonzo pressed a button on the screen, must have been switching comms, because he was calling for the Doctor.
“Mister Frame - how's things?” the Doctor said. Only a bit of strain in his voice right now. Rose hated that they were about to add to it.
“I've got lifesigns all over the ship, but they're going out, one-by-one.”
“What is it? Are they losing air?”
“No. Rose thinks it's the Host,” he said, with another terrified look back at her. “It's something to do with the Host.”
The Doctor didn't reply.
“Doctor,” Alonzo said. “Can you hear me?”
Rose let go of the railing and forced herself over to the comms, adding her voice to Alonzo's.
“Doctor! Are you all right?”
More deafening silence.
“Doctor, please answer,” she said, in a whisper.
The comms crackled. “Rose! It is the Host. They've gone berzerk. Are you safe up there?”
“Yes, we-”
A shout from Alonzo interrupted her words. He was racing for the door lever and... outside, some of the Host were lurching for the doorway, intoning the word 'kill' as they moved forward. He slammed it down and the door shut, but with one of the Host's hands part of the way through. He didn't seem to notice it, turning and leaning against the door.
“Alonzo!”
He looked in the direction of her flailing hand and he yelped when he saw the wriggling and grasping hand that was so close to him - he yanked the lever hard around and the door shivered and severed the Host's hand as it shut with finality. He let out a gasping breath.
“Good job,” Rose said, faintly, before turning back to the comms.
“We're safe, Doctor,” she said. “But we've sealed ourselves in.”
She leaned against the panel, her pulse racing. He hadn't answered her yet.
“Doctor? Doctor! Are you there?”
“You shouldn't have stood up,” Alonzo chided as he came over to join her, his hand reaching out to her stomach.
“He's not answering,” Rose said, batting his arm away. If the Doctor wasn't responding, she might need to figure this out on her own and save him. “Those Host... they were saying 'kill'. I'm going to assume that's not part of their normal programming.”
“Of course not,” he said.
“Machines don't spontaneously create new programming,” she continued. Knowing both the Doctor and Mickey, plus working for Torchwood, had taught her that. “Their information can be corrupted, but specifically 'kill'? That sounds like a plan. A plan means that there's a person out there who wanted everyone on this ship to die.”
“Sabotage?”
“You doubt it, after what your captain did?” Rose asked.
“The captain... he wasn't a robotics engineer,” Alonzo said.
“Which means that he was being used,” Rose said. “He was an older man - perhaps something else meant more to him than continuing to live. He might have died for a cause he believed in or because he had nothing to live for or he could have a family out there that he wanted to protect.”
“How would knowing that help us?”
“Because someone thinks that this ship or the people on it should be dead. If we can figure out who, that would help us in finding a way to stop the Host before they hurt anyone else.”
Rose pressed down on her bandage, feeling a bit of an ache now. Too much movement. She hadn't been able to tell, back when she'd been shot, if this technology used projectile or energy-based weaponry. It all hurt the same, but if she had a bit of metal inside her, that could be even more damaging in the end. She was just about to ask Alonzo about it when the comms whistled again.
“Rose, Mister Frame - are you still there?”
“We're all right,” Rose said. “We had a bit of an incident, but we're fine now.”
“What sort of incident?” the Doctor asked, sharply.
“I had to seal the door against the Host,” Alonzo said.
“They've been programmed to kill. Why would anyone do that?” the Doctor asked.
“Rose has been trying to figure that out. It's not our only problem, Doctor. I had to use a maximum deadlock on the door, which means... no one can get in,” Alonzo said. “We're sealed off. Even if you can fix the Titanic, you can't get to the bridge.”
“Oh, I'll get there,” the Doctor assured them. “One problem at a time, Midshipman. What's on Deck 31?”
Alonzo glanced at Rose, looking startled.
“That's down below. It's nothing. It's just the Host storage deck. It's where we keep the robots,” he said. Rose raised an eyebrow in disbelief and then smacked the man in the shoulder. When he looked at her in affront, she waved at the killer robots just outside their door. He turned slightly pink, mouthing 'oh'.
“Hmm. See that panel? Black,” the Doctor said. Alonzo and Rose both shifted at the console, glancing at the section for Deck 31. It was most definitely black. “It's registering nothing. No power, no heat, no light.”
“I've never seen it before,” Alonzo said. Rose bit back a sarcastic reply. It wouldn't help and Alonzo seemed a bit delicate at the moment. The Host had really shaken him.
“One-hundred percent shielded,” the Doctor said. “What's down there?”
“I'll try intensifying the scanner,” Alonzo said, moving away to jab at some more buttons.
“Are you all right down there?” Rose asked.
“We're just fine,” he said. “Tell Alonzo to let me know if he finds anything and... keep those engines going. And... Rose?”
“Yes, Doctor?”
“I'm sorry that I couldn't give you a better Christmas,” he said.
“Doctor - I'm with you,” she said. “It's already the best Christmas I've had in years.”
“I- well, I...” His voice was low and surprised. “Keep yourselves safe up there.”
“I promise,” Rose said. “I'll call you when we find something.”
“I'll see you soon.”
The comms clicked off. Rose took a deep breath and closed her eyes, hoping that the Doctor would be right this time.
Continue to Part Six.