Doctor Who - 02 - The Art of Forgetting

.14. Restart

At first it seemed that the Doctor's plan (or its absence) would work. It lasted for approximately half an hour. Afterwards vital signs indicators on the monitor took off and begun wild acrobatics. The hearts rate sped up, so did the breathing rate, blood pressure peaked, stress hormones poured into circulation, two hearts lost their usual rhythm and started pounding madly, almost independently of each other. That couldn't be healthy.

Theta could still hear the Doctor mind's song; it was full of fear now. The Doctor must have been frightened. He was also very angry. His anger burned through Theta's thoughts like acid.

Ood waited by the game bed, his hands clutched into fists. His large, slanting eyes burned increasingly vivid red. He was loosing it. He could not control himself anymore, and it frightened him just as much, as the things the Doctor was frightened of.

For a brief while emotions subsided; the Ood felt unspeakable relief when the Doctor's hearts rate returned to normal and his song subsided and stopped gritting with dissonances. But then the hell broke free.

Theta was curled on the floor now; his fists at his temples. The monitoring equipment wailed and blinked its mauve lights of the highest emergency. The Doctor's song wasn't anything recognisable anymore; it became a terrible scream of pain, fear, sorrow, despair, yearning, guilt, hatred and loneliness. Theta had no idea how a single living creature could feel so many negative emotions at the same time. It was as if he were smothered by an avalanche; under lumps of freezing snow the Ood fought for his life.

For a while everything went black. Theta was almost sure that his senses gave in to the storm of emotions destroying his brain, but after a moment the light flickered back. The Ood got up slowly, using a side of the game bed to support himself. His head swayed. Instinctively he checked the monitors – he didn't expect anything good, he was sure the Doctor was dead; a binary cardiovascular system or not, nobody could survive what had happened here – and to his surprise he realised, that the computer had rebooted the system. There was a command window blinking on the main screen, asking him to confirm the start up procedure.

The Ood hesitated with one hand above the keyboard. He could not hear the Doctor's song, although he could hear his breathing. It was possible that his brain burned out already, just like brains of all the others imprisoned in their adventures. It was a terrible thought and Theta's hand trembled. Hundreds of corridors, thousands of chambers, all lifeless, all dead. Humans and machines in one, vast tomb.

He lowered his hand and pressed the enter button. The computer trilled merrily, coming back to life. The Doctor's brain remained silent.