Lost In Time: A Doctor Who Fanfiction

Chapter 8 - 42, Part 2

Lyssa bit her lip, curling her arms around her stomach for comfort despite the sweltering heat in the room. "It may have been his body, but it wasn't actually Korwin who tried to kill us." She turned to McDonnell. "I never knew your husband, but I know he wouldn't have wanted to do what he did. You're right about that."

The captain stared at her, too many emotions flitting through her eyes for Lyssa to read. "Why are you speaking about him in the past tense? Where is my husband?" she demanded with a tight voice, scanning the room with the hope of the desperate.

The Doctor watched her with sympathy in his eyes before turning to Lyssa. "What do you know?" he asked in a low voice. "Any hints?" 

She glanced away, cheeks heating up despite the situation under his attention. "He - it," she amended, trying to distinguish the true culprit from Korwin, "has been hurt, deeply hurt. It wants what was stolen to be returned, and it will do anything to get it back. Anything." She forced herself to meet his gaze, trying to impress on him the severity of the situation. "And it doesn't care who it has to go through to get it." She paused, eyes falling on the scans Abi had dropped on the floor in her haste to escape. "If you need more proof, look at the scans."

His eyes flickered with curiosity as he picked up the scan results and held them up to the light, studying them intently. "His bio-scan results... internal body temperature: one hundred degrees!" he exclaimed in shock. "Body oxygen replaced by hydrogen..." He turned to the captain. "Your husband hasn't been infected, he's been overwhelmed!" 

McDonnell snatched the results away from him. "The test results are wrong!" she protested angrily. 

"But what is it, though?" he continued, seemingly unaware of her indignation. "Parasite? Mutagenic virus? Something that needs a host body. But how did it get inside him?"

"Stop talking like he's some kind of experiment!" McDonnell exclaimed, sounding slightly hysterical. 

"Hold on, Lyssa said something," he muttered, ignoring her anger. "Something important. 'It wants what was stolen to be returned, and it will do anything to get it back,'" he repeated thoughtfully before turning to the captain. "Where's the ship been? Have you made planet-fall recently?" She looked blank, so he switched his line of questioning. "Have you docked with any other vessels? Any kind of external contact at all?" 

"What is this? An interrogation?" she spat, glaring at him indignantly.

The Doctor watched her with sympathy, but continued on. "I'm sorry, but we've got to stop him before he tries to kill again."

McDonnell looked away, distraught. "We're just a... cargo ship." Her shoulders sagged. "That's it, that's all we are."

Scannell stepped forward between her and the Doctor, acting as a shield. "Doctor, if you give her a minute..."

The Doctor nodded, waiting silently as McDonnell tried to collect herself. 

Quickly recovering, she stepped away from Scannell and said brusquely, "I'm fine. I need to warn the crew." The Doctor nodded, turning his attention to the scan results once more as McDonnell flipped on the intercom. "Everybody, listen to me! Something has infected Korwin. He tried..." She stopped, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before continuing. "He tried to kill Abi and the Doctor's friend. None of you must go anywhere near him, is that clear?"

Ashton responded a moment later. "Understood, Captain."

Riley replied in the affirmative shortly after, then the comm fell silent as the captain stepped away with a sigh. Lyssa frowned, going through her memories of the episode before jerking upright as she counted through the members of the crew and landed on the one who hadn't checked in, along with the memory of her fate.