randomsushi | The Colony Hospital

The Doctor and Zoe get Jamie to a hospital on the planet Ghiaccio Quattro and uncover an alien plot to control the people using flu. Follows on from The Prison Beneath The Sea.

A little while later, Harry returned to the room with the computers in. “Thanks for that distraction,” he said to Don, taking a seat next to him.

Don shrugged. “You’re welcome. You idiot.”

“Hey, I’m not a coroner, how was I supposed to know?” Harry glared at his fellow technician.

“Common sense? You wear a mask during the outbreak, of course you're gonna wear one if you're cutting someone's lungs out.”

“Yeah. Well. He’s gone for now anyway.” Harry began flicking through screens showing live camera feed of the hospital and switched on his earpiece . “He’s making that James guy in the skirt have a CAT scan now.”

“The Doctor will not be put off for long.”

The voice made Harry and Don jump violently again. “It’s all right, I’m listening to the audio,” Harry said quickly, spinning around to face the figure standing behind them. “If he decides to come back, we’ll know and we can stop him again.”

“The Doctor is a stubborn man. He will not stop until he has settled his curiosity. We must put our plan into action tonight.”

Don and Harry exchanged concerned glances. “But we haven’t got herd control yet,” Don protested. “It’s only at eighty percent.”

“That will have to be sufficient. Begin herd control and conversion one hour after the hospital closes.”

“But… shouldn’t just wait and see what the Doctor does?” Don asked desperately. “I mean, now his friend isn’t a patient anymore, he might just go away.”

If it could, the figure would’ve laughed in his face. Instead it simply repeated, “he will not stop until he has settled his curiosity. Maintain surveillance until one hour after the hospital closes. Then we will begin.”

“See, I told y’ I was fine. Well, except for when I hit t’ floor,” Jamie grumbled, rubbing his head.

“Sudden pain in the head which makes you collapse does not equal fine,” Zoe argued. “Not stop whining and lie down. You could still have a fractured skull or something from where those thugs attacked you.”

Jamie rolled his eyes and flopped back onto the hotel bed. “They said I was fine. I’m fine,” he muttered. “I just had a headache. And… fainted or something.”

“You certainly chose an unfortunate moment to faint,” the Doctor said thoughtfully, pacing the room. “That man was hiding something.”

“There was something different about that room as well,” Zoe added, sitting on Jamie’s legs. “There was a door in the corner this morning but when we went back, there was a filing cabinet in the way. Stop kicking my bum.”

“Well get off ma leg then. I broke that ankle yesterday,” Jamie complained.

“A door, eh?” The Doctor stopped pacing and looked as his companions. “Maybe that’s where you disappeared to, Jamie. I think we should take a look.”

Jamie stood up and began walking towards the door.

“I was thinking after dark,” the Doctor added. “We’ll have dinner first. Jamie?”

Jamie ignored him and opened the door.

Frowning, the Doctor reached over and grabbed his arm. “Jamie, where are you going?”

Zoe jumped to her feet as Jamie shook off the Doctor’s grasp and walked out of the door. “Jamie, wait!”

The Doctor ran out of the door after him, then halted in astonishment. All around him, people were walking towards the staircase with vacant expressions, Jamie in the middle of them. “Zoe, stop him!” he ordered, running past her and back into the room.

Zoe shrugged and obediently jumped on Jamie’s back. The Highlander seemed utterly oblivious to her, even as she pulled his hair and yelled in his ear. “Stop it, Jamie!”

The Doctor reappeared and threw himself at Jamie’s legs, toppling the boy over. “Quick, hold him down,” he ordered Zoe, and began wrapping sellotape around his ankles. As soon as he was restrained, Jamie stopped struggling and just lay there, staring into space. “We’d better get him back to the room,” the Doctor said. “The floor can’t be comfortable.

Between them, they managed to drag Jamie back to their room, without him sustaining too many carpet burns. “What’s happened to him?” Zoe panted, dropping the boy unceremoniously onto the bed. “What’s happened to all of them?”

“I think I’m beginning to understand a little,” the Doctor murmured, looking out of the window. “They’re all going to the hospital. And I think they’ve all been there before.”

“What do you mean?” Zoe asked, joining him at the window.

“The flu, Zoe, the flu!” the Doctor exclaimed. “It’s a variant of flu that is powerful enough to hospitalise people. I think perhaps the flu outbreaks are being created deliberately simply to get people into the hospital, and once there, they have some kind of… of mind control done! And then they’re vaccinated, which would explain why it doesn’t have a chance to mutate.” He gazed at the crowds of people outside, walking in silence. “And now they’ve been activated. An entire planet full of mindless people.”

“Including Jamie!” Zoe gasped. “We’ve got to stop it!”