Untold Knowledge (Doctor Who x Genius Fem! Oc) [Book 1]

Chapter 129: Voyage of the Damned

In the same corridor, the Doctor used a speaking tube while Echo watched over everyone else. "Deck twenty-two to the bridge. Deck twenty-two to the bridge. Is there anyone there?"

"This is the bridge." a man answered only moments later.

He turned to look at Echo, silently telling he was connected as he continued. "Hello, sailor. Good to hear you. What's the situation up there?" he quickly asked.

The distress in his voice was obvious, but impressively stayed composed. "We've got air. The oxygen is holding, but the Captain, he's dead. He did it. I watched while he took down the shields. There was nothing I could do. I tried. I did try." he answered his fear beginning to intensify.

Recognizing the mentality, the Doctor immediately stepped in. "All right. Just stay calm. Tell me your name. What's your name?"

"Uh, Midshipman Frame." he answered shakily.

"Nice to meet you, sir. What's the state of the engines?"

"They're, er, hold on." After a few seconds maximum, a grunt of pain was heard.

The Time Lord furrowed his brow in concern. "Have you been injured?"

Remaining strong, Frame did his best to keep himself from hyperventilating. "I'm all right for now." he tried to reassure. Though, after looking at the stats, horrified dread came crashing down. "Oh, my Vot. They're cycling down."

"That's a nuclear storm drive, yes?" he asked in return as Echo returned to stand at his side while listening in. "The moment they're gone we lose orbit."

"The planet..." Frame muttered with obvious horror in his voice.

He nodded to himself. "Oh, yes. If we hit the planet, the nuclear storm explodes and wipes out life on Earth." he explained so they could all be on the same page.

Echo then leaned in to speak of their best course of action. "You're going to need to fire up the engine containment field and feed it back into the core." she quickly said, her thoughts running at top speed.

"This is never going to work." he answered doubtfully, especially when faced with such a difficult and Herculean task for survival.

"Don't worry yet. That should help to keep the engines going until we can get to you." she replied in an attempted reassuring manner.

Only moments later did the other passengers begin to speak their addled minds
"We're going to die."
"Are you saying someone's done this on purpose?"
"We are. We're going to die."
"We're just a cruise ship."

Echo looked at her beloved, "Do something. I'm tapped out."

Doing as told, the Doctor stepped up to stop their panicking. "Okay, okay. Shush, shush, shush, shush, shush." he silenced them. "First things first. One. We are going to climb through this ship. B. No. Two. We're going to reach the bridge. Three. Or C. We're going to save the Titanic. And, coming in at a very low four, or D, or that little iv in brackets they use in footnotes, why. Right then, follow us." then turned to walk away.

But Slade, of course, just had to question their undeniable authority. "Hang on a minute. Who put you two in charge? Who the hell are you, anyway?" he demanded in a rich child's manner.

Without hesitation, they both faced them with the Oncoming Storm brewing in his eyes. "I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I'm nine hundred and three years old and I'll be one of the people to save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below." he stated matter-of-factually as he spoke nothing but the truth.