The Always More (Doctor Who Fanfiction)

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine
Irene

When we reach the flood bay, The Doctor drops into a nearby plastic chair. Mr. Rye and Captain Chrysanthemum search the wide dark room for light switches.

"I'm going to get out," I think to myself. I remember the notebook laying on the floor of my room. Mentally, I add, "Get home," to the page in scratchy pencil. They find the lightswitches, and the room lights up. It's made mostly of glass and metal, like most rooms here, and have cabinets set endlessly against two of the walls.

"I don't know. It might be too dangerous," Captain Chrysanthemum is saying.

"Do we have a choice?" Mr. Rye demands.

The Doctor stands up. "No, hold on. What?"

"We're going to swim," Mr. Rye informs us. Even in the short time I've known him, Mr. Rye is grayer, and his eyes are colder. "To the airplane. This all started there, and we're thinking it might have to end there."

"No, no!"

"What else have we got?" It's frightening when Captain Chrysanthemum is angry, because she doesn't seem like she should even be capable of the emotion. She has a kind sadness in her eyes that makes her look like she is supposed to be some kind of teacher, not the Captain of a zombified sea base.

"And if you get infected?" The Doctor challenges. "And if you come back to infect the rest of us?"

"We could all go," proposes Mr. Rye.

"No." Captain Chrysanthemum shoots down this idea before it can get much farther than that. "The Captain has to stay with the ship."

"Yeah, and a crew of zombies trying to kill you?"

"So, three people go, one stays?" The Doctor tries to understand. "That's not a good idea."

"No. It's hard to keep up with three people like that," Captain Chrysanthemum says decidedly. "Two go, one of you stays with me."

"Except if you're not going, then I have got to, and I'm not leaving Irene here without me."

"That makes it simple then," says Tanner Rye, before his boss can dispute him. "Because if you're not going, Captain, then I'm not either."

After some debate, it was finally settled that The Doctor and I would indeed go together and alone, while Mr. Rye and the Captain stayed here.

In the twenty first century, the fact that they didn't have my size of scuba suit would have been a deal breaker. In the thirty-something century, the suits miraculously changed shape to fit to your body. I guess this is how Captain Chrysanthemum did it, since she was so tall.

The Doctor explains to me what he calls the basics of scuba diving, though if I had been able to absorb a fraction of the information he dumped on me I would have easily been an expert.

We were standing in the sealed air lock, side by side, all wired up in our suits, when The Doctor puts his hand on my shoulder.

"One step at a time," he tells me. I nod. We are both well aware of the potential carnivorous fish waiting for us in the fog of forest green and navy, and whatever else the void had brought us. The airlock is a tall, cylindrical room, with metal grating covering the walls and floor and ceiling alike, and orange, artificial light keeps us from plunging into darkness. The Doctor and I are forced to stand beside each other because we don't have a lot of space to spare, but we still have two or three feet between us.