The Destiny of Three [3] (The Parallel Series) ✓

Voyage of the Damned - Four

"No. No, no, no, no, no." The Doctor shook his head trying to struggle free. "Hold on, hold on, hold on. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." He paused. "I can work it out. It's like a task. I'm your apprentice." He grinned. "Just watch me. So, business is failing and you wreck the ship so that makes things even worse. Oh, yes!"

"No." Rita frowned before changing her mind. "Wait yes!" She grinned. "Past tense."

"The business isn't failing, it's failed." The Doctor nodded.

"My own board voted me out," Max explained. "Stabbed me in the back."

"If you had a back." The Doctor and Rita quietly mumbled. "So, you scupper the ship, wipe out any survivors just in case anyone's rumbled you and the board find their shares halved in value. Oh, but that's not enough. No. Because if a Max Capricorn ship hits the Earth, it destroys an entire planet." The Doctor explained his plan. "Outrage back home. Scandal! The business is wiped out." The Doctor placed the pieces together.

"And the whole board thrown in jail for mass murder."

"While you sit there" Rita gritted her teeth at him. "All safe and sound inside the impact chamber."

"I have men waiting to retrieve me from the ruins and enough off-world accounts to retire me to the beaches of Penhaxico Two, where the ladies, so I'm told, are very fond of metal."

"Disgusting." Rita spat. "Two thousand people were on this ship!" She shouted out of anger. "Six billion on planet Earth!"

"All of them slaughtered" the Doctor cut in, "and why? Because Max Capricorn is a loser." He hissed.

"I never lose." He snapped at them.

"You can't even sink the Titanic." The Doctor laughed.

"And this ship was named after the 'unsinkable ship' that sunk."

"Oh, but I can, Doctor, Stone. I can cancel the engines from here." He laughed as an alarm blared.

"No!" Rita shouted.

"You can't do this!" The Doctor went to lunge at him.

"Host, hold them!" Max shouted. The Host stepped from behind them grabbing their arms and forcing them behind their backs.

"Not so clever now, Doctor, Stone." He chuckled. "A shame we couldn't work together. You're both rather good. All that banter yet not a word wasted." He rolled past them. "Time for me to retire. The Titanic is falling. The sky will burn. Let the Christmas inferno commence." He paused then added. "Oh. Oh, Host. Kill them."

"Mister Capricorn!" A voice shouted. The Doctor and Rita swallowed knowing whose voice that was. They looked over seeing Astrid in a fork lift.

"I resign." She then sped towards Max.

"Astrid, don't!" The Doctor and Rita screamed struggling to break free.

They watched in horror as the Host threw their halos at the fork life. Astrid pushed the forks under Max's life support machine.

"No!" Rita screamed as the Doctor shouted at her: "He's cut the brake line!" The Time Lords tried to break free as Astrid glanced nodding at them. She then lifted Max completely off the ground and forced them both forward off the edge.

"Astrid!" They both shouted as the Host let them go. They ran to the edge and watched her fall. The Doctor pulled Rita to his chest tightly holding her as he felt her slightly shaking. "Shush." He softly whispered stroking her hair with one hand the other tightly holding her body to his.

"She was going to come with us," Rita mumbled tears slowly rolling down her face.

"I know." He whispered in a murmur again kissing her forehead and wiping her tears away with his thumb. The Doctor then took her hand and stood up. They slowly walked away from the explosions.