The Colony Hospital - Doctor Who
Jan. 2nd, 2008 02:07 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
sushigal007.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
randomsushiThe 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.
Down in the secret room, the phone rang. Don, Harry, Zoe and the Doctor exchanged puzzled looks, and then Don reached out and picked up the handset. “Y’ello?” He listened for a few seconds and then held the handset towards the Doctor. “It’s for you.”
The Doctor lifted the phone to his ear. “Er… this is the Doctor, how may I help you?”
“Doctor. We have you companion, James.” The monotonous voice of a Cyberman echoed slightly down the line.
“Jamie,” the Doctor corrected. Zoe grabbed his arm in concern and leaned it, trying to listen in on the conversation. The Doctor batted her away gently. “I take it you didn’t just call to let me know that.”
“You and your female companion will surrender yourselves or he will be converted.”
The Doctor nodded slowly. “And what will happen if we do give ourselves up?”
“If you allow us to continue the conversion of our army, we will let you go free.”
“Right.” The Doctor quickly covered the mouthpiece. “Zoe, how long do you think it’ll take to finish the virus?” he whispered.
“Give me thirty seconds,” Zoe hissed back before darting back to the computer.
“All right,” the Doctor said down the phone. “We agree. But first, I want to know if Jamie’s all right. Put him on the phone.”
There was a pause, and then Jamie’s voice echoed tentatively down the line. “Hello?”
“Ah, Jamie! Good to hear from you,” the Doctor said cheerfully. “Are you OK? Have they hurt you at all?”
“Well, mah arm’s a wee bit sore, but other than that…”
“Good. Right, now don’t do anything rash. We’ll be there soon.”
“You’re not going to give yourself up, are y’?!” The Doctor winced and held the phone away from his ear as Jamie shouted at him. “Y’ know they’ll no’ let us go, y’ cannae-“
“Calm down, Jamie!” the Doctor interrupted sharply. “Just trust me.”
There was a pause, then a sigh. “All right.”
“Good. Now put the Cyberman back on, there’s a good lad.” He waited for a moment. “So, do you want us to come to you, or are you going to send us an escort?”
“You will go to the corridor outside the morgue. A Cyberman will be waiting to escort you.”
“Very well. Bye bye, see you-“ He stopped and held out the phone so the other could hear the dial tone. “That’s the problem with Cybermen, they have absolutely no manners.”
“Finished!” Zoe said triumphantly.
“Excellent,” the Doctor congratulated, rushing over to her. “Run it then.”
“Oh it needs to compile first,” she said.
“You said you’d have it done in thirty seconds!”
“I did!” she protested. “The code’s all finished, it just needs to convert to a binary format.”
“Well how long is that going to take?!” he asked urgently.
She glanced at the screen. “Five minutes and fifteen seconds.”
“But the Cybermen are expecting us now,” the Doctor said frantically. “Oh heavens!”
“They’re not expecting us,” Don pointed out. “Play for time, and we can run the program as soon as it’s finished.”
“All right.” The Doctor handed them the X-ray machines. “You’d better take one of these too, they may try to get in once we leave.”
/\/\/\
The Doctor and Zoe tiptoed across the empty morgue and cautiously pushed the door ajar. Immediately, it was flung open and a Cyberman pointed a Cyberlaser at them. “You will come with me.”
“Yes, all right, there’s no need to snap,” the Doctor said.
The Cyberman turned and marched down the corridor. Zoe and the Doctor exchanged glances and then began to follow it. “What should we do?” Zoe hissed quietly.
“Play for time,” the Doctor muttered back. He glanced upwards as screams echoed down the stairwell. “Hopefully the panic will hinder us.”
The Cyberman stopped in front of a lift and jabbed the button. The doors opened. “Enter,” it commanded, pointing the Cyberlaser at them.
“Oh no, not the lift, I’m terribly claustrophobic,” the Doctor protested.
“It’s true,” Zoe agreed. “He gets hysterical in small spaces.”
“Enter,” the Cyberman repeated.
The Doctor sighed and looked forward apprehensively. “Oh no. Oh dear. Zoe, hold my hand. Oh my goodness! No! No!” he cried theatrically, dropping to his knees in the doorway. “The walls are closing in on me! Help! We’ll all plummet and die!”
“There there, Doctor,” Zoe said soothingly. “It’s all right, you’re safe. We’re in a hospital, remember? Think happy thoughts.”
“It’s not safe! Oh Zoe, get me out of here! I can’t do it! Argh! No! The walls!” he wailed, grabbing the edges of the doors as the Cyberman attempted to drag him inside.
“Oh dear, this really isn’t going to work,” Zoe said, patting his back and gazing up imploringly at the Cyberman. “It really would be much easier to take the stairs.”
The Cyberman ignored her and eventually managed to grab the Doctor’s wrists and pull him inside. “You will tend to him,” he ordered Zoe.
Zoe scowled and slumped down on the ground next to the Doctor. “Well that didn’t work.”
“It brought us a little time,” the Doctor reassured her. “Oh heavens, the walls!” he suddenly shouted, scooting backwards.
Zoe jumped violently. “What was that for?!”
The Doctor ignored her and glanced up at the control panel. Carefully, he pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. “The cable will break! We’ll all be crushed!”
Zoe glanced up at the Cyberman, which had its back to them and inched closer to the Doctor. “There there. It’s all right. Breathe deeply and think of… of kittens and rainbows. ”
The lift stopped and the doors slid open. Hastily, the Doctor shoved the sonic screwdriver back in his pocket. The Cyberman turned and pointed the Cyberlaser at them again. “Out.”
“Damn.” The Doctor reluctantly hauled himself to his feet and held a hand out to Zoe.
Zoe reached out, pulled herself up halfway, then hesitated and deliberately let her foot slip underneath her. “Ow! My ankle!”
“Oh my! Are you all right?” the Doctor asked urgently, pulling her to her feet.
“Ow. No. Ow ow ow.” She hopped up and down and rubbed her foot. “It’s these silly heels. Ow.”
“Here, let me help-ow!” Evidently tired of waiting, the Cyberman grabbed the Doctor and Zoe by the wrists and began to pull them down the now-deserted corridor. “Really, there’s no need to be so rough!” the Doctor protested.
With a final push, he fell through a set of double doors and landed on the floor in an undignified heap. A moment later, there was a squeal and Zoe landed beside him. The Doctor climbed to his feet, helped Zoe up and brushed his frock coat down indignantly.
In the operating theatre, two Cybermen stood either side of a sterile table, upon which Jamie was strapped. He smiled ruefully at his friends and wiggled his fingers. “I’d wave if I could.”
“Ok… we’re here, we surrender,” the Doctor said, raising his hands. “Now let him go.”
“Once we have regained control of these citizens and resumed conversion. Then you will be released.”
“Will y’ at least let me out o’ this thing then?” Jamie asked hopefully. He looked upwards at the array of blades and lasers in apprehension. “Please?”
The Cybermen ignored him. One of them moved over to a control panel and began pushing buttons.
“Er… what are you doing?” the Doctor asked nervously.
“The systems must be restarted and realigned in preparation for conversion,” the Cyberman explained.
The knives above Jamie suddenly whirred into life, and the arm of the machine holding them began to move towards his head. He squeaked in terror and tried in vain to twist himself free of his bonds. Just as suddenly as they’d started, they stopped. “OK, OK. Y’ said you’d let me go, let me go!” he pleaded.
“It’s all right, Jamie, I think it’s just… moving into position.” The Doctor eyed the apparatus with equal apprehension. “Although it would reassure us if you let him go.”
“Cybermen report resistance from the control room. This is your doing. You have broken your side of the bargain.”
Zoe and the Doctor backed up hurriedly as the Cybermen levelled their weapons at them. “Oh no, it’s not our fault!” the Doctor protested. “Maybe the door’s just stuck?”
Zoe clutched at his arm in panic as the Cyberman turned back to the control panel. “The program will have compiled by now, what’s taking so long?!” she whispered urgently. “Do something!”
“They must be busy trying to hold out the Cybermen,” the Doctor whispered back. He reached into the folds of his coat and felt for the spare X-ray machine.
But before he could switch it on, the two Cybermen flanking Jamie stumbled forward. “Look Doctor, it’s working!” Zoe cried.
One of them howled an electronic whine and clutched its head, the other slumped to its knees as smoke began to rise from its chest panel. The Cyberman at the control panel spun round with its weapon pointed at them, then dropped it and clawed at its head, screeching loudly. Then suddenly, their heads exploded in unison.
Zoe limped over to Jamie’s side, coughing and waving smoke out of the way. “Are you all right?”
“Aye, I’m fine.” He nodded up at the conversion apparatus. “I’d really like to get off of this thing now.”
/\/\/\
A few days later, Jamie stood in front of the hotel mirror, examining himself carefully. “Are y’ quite sure ye cannae see the scar?”
“As sure as I was when you asked ten minutes ago,” the Doctor replied, bored. “And ten minutes before that.”
“And y’ definitely sure there’s no more wee bits o’ metal in me?”
“See for yourself.” Zoe held out a CAT scan printout. “No metal anywhere. No chips, no switches, no robots.”
Jamie looked at the printout in interest. “This is my brain? What’s this wee green bit here?”
“Oh, that’s your logical thinking,” Zoe told him. “And this pink bit here, that’s where you’re thinking about food. And this big yellow blob is where you keep all your naughty thoughts about girls-“ She started laughing as he snatched it away from he, scowling.
“Don’t be mean, Zoe,” the Doctor said mildly. “Or we’ll scan your head and see how many naughty thoughts you have.”
Jamie looked hopeful. “Can we?”
“No. The hospital has enough to deal with at the moment with everybody else’s chips,” the Doctor said. “Still, at least they don’t have to worry about the flu anymore. Don and Harry have enough of the cure for Reg to replicate if it should pop up again. Now then!” He clapped his hands together, making his companions jump. “I think it’s time we were on our way. We could do with a nice holiday…”
Down in the secret room, the phone rang. Don, Harry, Zoe and the Doctor exchanged puzzled looks, and then Don reached out and picked up the handset. “Y’ello?” He listened for a few seconds and then held the handset towards the Doctor. “It’s for you.”
The Doctor lifted the phone to his ear. “Er… this is the Doctor, how may I help you?”
“Doctor. We have you companion, James.” The monotonous voice of a Cyberman echoed slightly down the line.
“Jamie,” the Doctor corrected. Zoe grabbed his arm in concern and leaned it, trying to listen in on the conversation. The Doctor batted her away gently. “I take it you didn’t just call to let me know that.”
“You and your female companion will surrender yourselves or he will be converted.”
The Doctor nodded slowly. “And what will happen if we do give ourselves up?”
“If you allow us to continue the conversion of our army, we will let you go free.”
“Right.” The Doctor quickly covered the mouthpiece. “Zoe, how long do you think it’ll take to finish the virus?” he whispered.
“Give me thirty seconds,” Zoe hissed back before darting back to the computer.
“All right,” the Doctor said down the phone. “We agree. But first, I want to know if Jamie’s all right. Put him on the phone.”
There was a pause, and then Jamie’s voice echoed tentatively down the line. “Hello?”
“Ah, Jamie! Good to hear from you,” the Doctor said cheerfully. “Are you OK? Have they hurt you at all?”
“Well, mah arm’s a wee bit sore, but other than that…”
“Good. Right, now don’t do anything rash. We’ll be there soon.”
“You’re not going to give yourself up, are y’?!” The Doctor winced and held the phone away from his ear as Jamie shouted at him. “Y’ know they’ll no’ let us go, y’ cannae-“
“Calm down, Jamie!” the Doctor interrupted sharply. “Just trust me.”
There was a pause, then a sigh. “All right.”
“Good. Now put the Cyberman back on, there’s a good lad.” He waited for a moment. “So, do you want us to come to you, or are you going to send us an escort?”
“You will go to the corridor outside the morgue. A Cyberman will be waiting to escort you.”
“Very well. Bye bye, see you-“ He stopped and held out the phone so the other could hear the dial tone. “That’s the problem with Cybermen, they have absolutely no manners.”
“Finished!” Zoe said triumphantly.
“Excellent,” the Doctor congratulated, rushing over to her. “Run it then.”
“Oh it needs to compile first,” she said.
“You said you’d have it done in thirty seconds!”
“I did!” she protested. “The code’s all finished, it just needs to convert to a binary format.”
“Well how long is that going to take?!” he asked urgently.
She glanced at the screen. “Five minutes and fifteen seconds.”
“But the Cybermen are expecting us now,” the Doctor said frantically. “Oh heavens!”
“They’re not expecting us,” Don pointed out. “Play for time, and we can run the program as soon as it’s finished.”
“All right.” The Doctor handed them the X-ray machines. “You’d better take one of these too, they may try to get in once we leave.”
/\/\/\
The Doctor and Zoe tiptoed across the empty morgue and cautiously pushed the door ajar. Immediately, it was flung open and a Cyberman pointed a Cyberlaser at them. “You will come with me.”
“Yes, all right, there’s no need to snap,” the Doctor said.
The Cyberman turned and marched down the corridor. Zoe and the Doctor exchanged glances and then began to follow it. “What should we do?” Zoe hissed quietly.
“Play for time,” the Doctor muttered back. He glanced upwards as screams echoed down the stairwell. “Hopefully the panic will hinder us.”
The Cyberman stopped in front of a lift and jabbed the button. The doors opened. “Enter,” it commanded, pointing the Cyberlaser at them.
“Oh no, not the lift, I’m terribly claustrophobic,” the Doctor protested.
“It’s true,” Zoe agreed. “He gets hysterical in small spaces.”
“Enter,” the Cyberman repeated.
The Doctor sighed and looked forward apprehensively. “Oh no. Oh dear. Zoe, hold my hand. Oh my goodness! No! No!” he cried theatrically, dropping to his knees in the doorway. “The walls are closing in on me! Help! We’ll all plummet and die!”
“There there, Doctor,” Zoe said soothingly. “It’s all right, you’re safe. We’re in a hospital, remember? Think happy thoughts.”
“It’s not safe! Oh Zoe, get me out of here! I can’t do it! Argh! No! The walls!” he wailed, grabbing the edges of the doors as the Cyberman attempted to drag him inside.
“Oh dear, this really isn’t going to work,” Zoe said, patting his back and gazing up imploringly at the Cyberman. “It really would be much easier to take the stairs.”
The Cyberman ignored her and eventually managed to grab the Doctor’s wrists and pull him inside. “You will tend to him,” he ordered Zoe.
Zoe scowled and slumped down on the ground next to the Doctor. “Well that didn’t work.”
“It brought us a little time,” the Doctor reassured her. “Oh heavens, the walls!” he suddenly shouted, scooting backwards.
Zoe jumped violently. “What was that for?!”
The Doctor ignored her and glanced up at the control panel. Carefully, he pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. “The cable will break! We’ll all be crushed!”
Zoe glanced up at the Cyberman, which had its back to them and inched closer to the Doctor. “There there. It’s all right. Breathe deeply and think of… of kittens and rainbows. ”
The lift stopped and the doors slid open. Hastily, the Doctor shoved the sonic screwdriver back in his pocket. The Cyberman turned and pointed the Cyberlaser at them again. “Out.”
“Damn.” The Doctor reluctantly hauled himself to his feet and held a hand out to Zoe.
Zoe reached out, pulled herself up halfway, then hesitated and deliberately let her foot slip underneath her. “Ow! My ankle!”
“Oh my! Are you all right?” the Doctor asked urgently, pulling her to her feet.
“Ow. No. Ow ow ow.” She hopped up and down and rubbed her foot. “It’s these silly heels. Ow.”
“Here, let me help-ow!” Evidently tired of waiting, the Cyberman grabbed the Doctor and Zoe by the wrists and began to pull them down the now-deserted corridor. “Really, there’s no need to be so rough!” the Doctor protested.
With a final push, he fell through a set of double doors and landed on the floor in an undignified heap. A moment later, there was a squeal and Zoe landed beside him. The Doctor climbed to his feet, helped Zoe up and brushed his frock coat down indignantly.
In the operating theatre, two Cybermen stood either side of a sterile table, upon which Jamie was strapped. He smiled ruefully at his friends and wiggled his fingers. “I’d wave if I could.”
“Ok… we’re here, we surrender,” the Doctor said, raising his hands. “Now let him go.”
“Once we have regained control of these citizens and resumed conversion. Then you will be released.”
“Will y’ at least let me out o’ this thing then?” Jamie asked hopefully. He looked upwards at the array of blades and lasers in apprehension. “Please?”
The Cybermen ignored him. One of them moved over to a control panel and began pushing buttons.
“Er… what are you doing?” the Doctor asked nervously.
“The systems must be restarted and realigned in preparation for conversion,” the Cyberman explained.
The knives above Jamie suddenly whirred into life, and the arm of the machine holding them began to move towards his head. He squeaked in terror and tried in vain to twist himself free of his bonds. Just as suddenly as they’d started, they stopped. “OK, OK. Y’ said you’d let me go, let me go!” he pleaded.
“It’s all right, Jamie, I think it’s just… moving into position.” The Doctor eyed the apparatus with equal apprehension. “Although it would reassure us if you let him go.”
“Cybermen report resistance from the control room. This is your doing. You have broken your side of the bargain.”
Zoe and the Doctor backed up hurriedly as the Cybermen levelled their weapons at them. “Oh no, it’s not our fault!” the Doctor protested. “Maybe the door’s just stuck?”
Zoe clutched at his arm in panic as the Cyberman turned back to the control panel. “The program will have compiled by now, what’s taking so long?!” she whispered urgently. “Do something!”
“They must be busy trying to hold out the Cybermen,” the Doctor whispered back. He reached into the folds of his coat and felt for the spare X-ray machine.
But before he could switch it on, the two Cybermen flanking Jamie stumbled forward. “Look Doctor, it’s working!” Zoe cried.
One of them howled an electronic whine and clutched its head, the other slumped to its knees as smoke began to rise from its chest panel. The Cyberman at the control panel spun round with its weapon pointed at them, then dropped it and clawed at its head, screeching loudly. Then suddenly, their heads exploded in unison.
Zoe limped over to Jamie’s side, coughing and waving smoke out of the way. “Are you all right?”
“Aye, I’m fine.” He nodded up at the conversion apparatus. “I’d really like to get off of this thing now.”
/\/\/\
A few days later, Jamie stood in front of the hotel mirror, examining himself carefully. “Are y’ quite sure ye cannae see the scar?”
“As sure as I was when you asked ten minutes ago,” the Doctor replied, bored. “And ten minutes before that.”
“And y’ definitely sure there’s no more wee bits o’ metal in me?”
“See for yourself.” Zoe held out a CAT scan printout. “No metal anywhere. No chips, no switches, no robots.”
Jamie looked at the printout in interest. “This is my brain? What’s this wee green bit here?”
“Oh, that’s your logical thinking,” Zoe told him. “And this pink bit here, that’s where you’re thinking about food. And this big yellow blob is where you keep all your naughty thoughts about girls-“ She started laughing as he snatched it away from he, scowling.
“Don’t be mean, Zoe,” the Doctor said mildly. “Or we’ll scan your head and see how many naughty thoughts you have.”
Jamie looked hopeful. “Can we?”
“No. The hospital has enough to deal with at the moment with everybody else’s chips,” the Doctor said. “Still, at least they don’t have to worry about the flu anymore. Don and Harry have enough of the cure for Reg to replicate if it should pop up again. Now then!” He clapped his hands together, making his companions jump. “I think it’s time we were on our way. We could do with a nice holiday…”
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}