The comms whistle again. I get to my feet and reach for the button, motioning for him to speak. After all, he's the Captain by default now. "This is the bridge."

"This is Kitchen Five."

He shares my relieved grin. "How many of you are there?"

"Six of us. Just about. Are we the only ones left alive, sir?"

"No, there's more on Deck Nineteen." My warnings aren't enough to stop him. Using the desk to pull himself up, he examines the controls. "Hold on. If I reverse the scanner..." With a few prods of the ship's schematics on the screen, dozens of tiny figures dot across the various floors. "There's fifty— sixty people still alive all over the shop. Hold on, I can see you! Kitchen Five, there you are! Listen, everyone's heading for the bridge. Don't go portside, there's no air. Can you make your way starboard?"

The ceiling creaks again. I look up, muttering prayers under my breath. It remains steady.

Hesitating, the cook replies, "We're stuck. The doors have sealed, we can't get out." With another pause, we can hear a muffled squeaking. "No, wait a minute. It's opening! There's someone on the other side!"

We look at the scan again. There is no other life form indicated on the rest of their floor.

The cook cheers, "Host, we've got Host! The Host are still working!"

At my confused glance, Alonso explains, "The angels. That's brilliant! Tell them to clear a path to the bridge."

They don't reply.

"Did you get that? Kitchen Five, report. Hello, Kitchen Five?"

Screams ring out from the speakers. Then a slicing of metal. The life-signs vanish.

"Report! Kitchen Five, report, now!"

Nothing.

My eyes close. I utter another prayer, this time for easy passage.

"Inara, Mr Frame, how's things?"

Still in a state of shock, his head shaking slightly, he stammers, "Doctor, I've got life signs all over the ship but they're going out, one by one."

The Doctor pauses. "What is it, they losing air?"

"N-No. One of them said it was the Host, it's something to do with the Host."

We wait but he says nothing. My heartbeat grows louder again. I can't keep that noise out of my head. "Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me? Doctor!"

His reply is taking too long. I begin to pace, agitatedly pulling on the roots of my hair. Most of the elaborate bun he did for me has come loose from the crash.

"The Host have gone berserk! Are you safe up there?" his shout finally comes.

We freeze. Footsteps tread softly towards us. Just through the open doorway, a ripple of white catches my eye. I sprint over and slam my hand against the button for the door.

Before I can properly catch my breath, Alonso shrieks, lunging for the fallen pistol. A loud bang shocks me away from the door as he shoots the button. It slams shut with a little more force and a severed mechanical hand falls to the floor. Backing up, we find the Host staring back through the window.

"How long will that hold, d'you think?"

I don't need an answer. Stumbling over to the rubble, I try to shift some of it over to block the door, cautious not to disturb it and cause another collapse.

"Inara, are you still there?"

Alonso staggers back over, keeping a hand over the makeshift pressure bandage. He sends me an amused glance over his shoulder. "She's fine, sir. But we've got Host outside. I've sealed the door and she's trying to barricade it."

I almost think I hear him sigh in relief. "They've been programmed to kill. Why would anyone do that?"

"That's not the only problem, Doctor. I had to use a maximum deadlock on the door. Which means... no one can get in. We're sealed off. Even if you can fix the Titanic, you can't get to the bridge." The next time he looks to me, his eyes soften with silent apologies. I return a strained smile.

"Yeah. Right. Fine! One problem at a time," the Doctor hurriedly dismisses. "What is on Deck Thirty-One?"

He shrugs awkwardly. "Uh... that's down below. It's nothing. It's just the Host Storage Deck, that's where we keep the robots."

The clatter of something heavy and metal being moved overtakes the speakers for a moment. I hold my breath, easing up when he speaks again. "But what's that? Do you see that panel of black? It's registering nothing. No power, no heat, no light."

Hurrying back over, I take a look at the ship's scan. Sure enough, a strip of black stretches along a wide section of the deck. I hear no lie in Alonso's response. "I've never seen it before."

"One hundred per cent shielded. What's down there?"

"I'll try intensifying the scanner."

He, too, seems satisfied but I still hear the anxiety in his voice. "Let me know if you find anything. And keep those engines going."

Before he can go, I lunge for the button and call out, "Doctor!"

"Yes?" he instantly replies.

I can't help but smile at the sound of hope in his tone. "You be careful. I'll see you later."

—

We have tuned out the din of the Host trying to break in, secure in the hope that they won't manage to get to us in time. The bridge keeps getting hotter and hotter as the ship reaches its last legs. Cursing loudly, I tear off my gloves to ease my discomfort. My fingers burn under the bandages and blood has started to spot through them. I drag the first aid kit closer to us and unsteadily shake out a few painkillers from the bottle inside. Alonso sceptically eyes the one I hold out for him. "What, not interested?"

He accepts it with a grumble and raises it as if in a toast. "It's past midnight, so I suppose it's fitting to wish ourselves a merry Christmas. Cheers."

"Cheers," I chuckle, swallowing mine.

"So, what about that Doctor?"

I head over to the doors and peer out. The Host still waits, their black eyes boring into me. A thought suddenly pops into my head. Stumbling as the ship starts to shake, I rush back to the navigation desks. "Is there an override code for those things?"

His stern glare burns into the back of my head. "Inara," he huffs impatiently. "Come on, we might die any second. Give me something."

"It's complicated. Very complicated."

"Trust me, I get 'complicated'. My ex-boyfriend was a cyborg."

I hum in reply, snatching up the severed Host hand from the floor and some tweezers. "Well, he's a nine-hundred-year-old, time-travelling alien who is apparently meant to marry me at some point in our future but we're not technically together because he told me my now-immortal best friend was dead. And we spent the last year imprisoned and psychologically tortured by his childhood friend," I casually reply.

Another tremor knocks us off-balance. "That is complicated," he muses, straining with the effort of steadying the wheel. "Will you talk to him once this is over? First thing once we get out of here?"

"I'd rather forget it all happened."

"Yeah, well, unfortunately—" a sharp gasp interrupts him as he trips, knocking his injured side into one of the wooden spokes of the wheel "—things aren't that simple. We did just meet but I reckon sharing a life-threatening situation gives me the right to say, 'Get on with it'. Life's too short."

With a snort of laughter, I continue to analyse the hand, glancing over to the comms with narrowed eyes. "Not for him, it isn't," I mutter. "Now, come on, you've got to know something about the Host. How do you override them? There's got to be an emergency code or something."

The worst quake yet knocks us to the side. Flames jump up from the rubble. We narrowly miss a flurry of sparks but their heat sends a shock across my exposed arm. I yelp, falling against the desk. My jaw slackens, eyes widening in shock when I see the radar. "We're too close!"

He cranes his neck to see. "Oh my Vot. At this rate, we—"

A shrill whistle cuts us off. "Are you two still there?"

"Nowhere else we can go, is there?"

"It's the engines, sir. They're on the last phase. There's nothing more we can do, we've only got eight minutes left!"

I lose my footing, tumbling onto the floor. "Doctor!"

"Don't worry, I'll get there."

Alonso offers me a hand back up and I join him at the wheel, putting in all my strength to stop us from veering any closer to the planet. He has to yell over the thunderous shaking and creaking all around us, "But the bridge is sealed off!"

"Yeah, yeah. Working on it. I'll get there, Mr Frame. Somehow."

The drumming has started again. I groan, shaking my head to clear it. It still won't go away. "Not now! Please, please, not now!"

"What's wrong?"

The room is getting smaller. I can practically feel the walls closing in on me, crushing me. I try to cover my ears but it pounds from within my skull, like something fighting to get out. My panicked stare lands on the planet coming closer by the second. Fires spring up across its surface, Toclafane swarming up to meet us through the black sky. "No, no, no, no!"

Hands grasp my shoulders, trying to steady me. "Inara? Inara, look at me. You can't lose it now, I need you."

Slowly, I comply. Dark eyes glare back at me, matched with a cruel grin. I start back, blinking rapidly. Alonso frowns back at me. I draw in a gasp for air and double over, wrapping my arms securely around myself. "Oh my Gods. I— W-What was that?"

"Stay with me. Stay with me, come on. We can do this."

"Bridge, this is Reception One."

We both pause. "Who's that?" he cautiously asks.

I already have a hand on the comms button, though, relief washing over me. "Astrid, is that you?"

"Inara! Yes, it's me. Now, tell me, can you divert power to the teleport system?"

He spares a glance towards the engines' monitor. They're getting lower and lower. "No way. We're using we've everything we've got to keep the engines going."

Growing more impatient, she pleads, "It's just one trip, I need to get to Deck 31!"

"And I'm telling you, no!"

The pounding in my head hasn't stopped. Grimacing, I lean my weight against the desk and try to take some more deep breaths. She sighs, "Mr Frame, this is for the Doctor. He's gone down there on his own and I— I can't just leave him. He's done everything he can to save us. It's time we did something to help him."

My anxiety increases all over again. I send him a warning glare. "How do we divert the power?"

"Wait, b-but—"

"You just told me life's too short to let him go. Please, I can't lose him."

His jaw clenches, his focus darting between the engines and I. With a groan, he nods in reluctant agreement. "Giving you power."

"Thank you. Good luck, Astrid."

Barely two minutes later, just as I begin to calm myself, the engines' levels start to dip once more. "Engines closing," an automated voice announces.

"No, no, no!"

I desperately slam my hands against the sides of the computer but it only flickers and repeats itself. "What's happening?"

"Something shut us off! Help me. Quick, help me!"

Rushing back to the wheel, we try our best to steer the ship away. It's no use. Without the engines, we have no chance of stopping it.

The ship tilts. We fall hard, clinging to each other for some comfort in what feels like our last moments. My prayers rise to desperate screams as the chaos and destruction roars in my ears.

The floor bursts open just a metre away from us. We screech, rushing to cover ourselves as two Hosts rise onto the bridge. But then I hesitate. Someone else is with them, struggling to free himself from the rubble.

"Doctor?"

"Deadlock broken."

He jumps to his feet, eyes burning with anger. "Ah, Inara, Midshipman Frame. At last!"

I help Alonso up but he makes no attempt to move, staring fearfully at the robots. "B-But the Host—"

"Controller dead, they revert to the next highest authority. And that's me."

Rushing to join him by the controls, I ask, "Did Astrid find you?"

"Oh, yes. She stopped Capricorn — insurance scam gone off the rails. The company failed, he wanted an out. Suppose she gave him one."

He doesn't need to say anything else, I can already tell what that means. Another sacrifice. They never stop.

Realising too, the Midshipman gulps. "There's no power, the ship's gonna fall."

"What's your first name?"

"Alonso," he whimpers.

Freezing with his hands on the navigation wheel, the Doctor turns to look at him. "You're kidding me."

"Why?"

A slight smile comes over him. "That's something else I've always wanted to say. Allons-y, Alonso!"

He gives the wheel a sharp turn. We're already in freefall. I collapse onto the nearest desk, clinging on for dear life as the planet rises to meet us. Flames rush up outside the windows as the heat of our entry into the atmosphere ignites the ship.

The scanner beeps. Hauling myself up further, I flip a switch and gape at the map that appears on the screen. We're heading straight for London. It zooms in even further. He groans, grabbing the telephone on the desk. "Hello? Yes um... could you get me Buckingham Palace?"

"What?" I shriek. The ship lurches again due to his distraction and I struggle back to my feet, taking over at the wheel.

"Listen to me! Security Code 771, now get out of there!"

"Tell me you've got a better plan!"

My frustration doesn't last long. His hands find mine over the wheel and our eyes meet. Even now, I can't help but mirror his exhilarated grin. He practically cackles from the thrill of it all.

Only the sound of a second notification shifts our attention. "Engine active. Engine active."

The force of it knocks us back. Still, we keep on steering.

The roof of the Palace is getting closer. I put all of my strength into pulling the wheel towards myself, redirecting us upwards. We are met with the open sky again.

An arm wraps around my waist. Stifling my laughter, I bury my face against the Doctor's shoulder. Once we're in the clear, he hugs me properly, the force of it almost lifting my feet from the ground. "Merry Christmas, Inara!"

My head feels as light as the clouds as I try to catch my breath. All at once, my fears melt away and I am left completely myself for just this moment, enveloped by him. I take the moment of intoxication to crash my lips against his in a dizzying kiss. He tenses for a moment in shock before his hands find my back again, holding me close.

Our noses brush as I pull away and he instinctively moves in again. I let my forehead rest against his instead. "Merry Christmas, Doctor."

Still wrapped up in each other, we sit beside Alonso, resting against the wall. The Doctor answers his bewildered stare, "Used the heat of re-entry to fire up the Secondary Storm Drive. Unsinkable, that's me."

He chuckles nervously. "We made it."

"Not all of us." Just as I move over to take another look at his bullet wound in the daylight that now pours in, the Doctor leaps up, almost knocking into me. "Teleport She was wearing a teleport bracelet!"

We follow him into the reception hall. The windows have been shattered, the glass shard littering the floor. Most of the furniture has been destroyed, some still blazing. I recognise the tour guide and businessman from last night. "Rickston, sonic!" the Doctor shouts to the latter. "Mr Copper, the teleports, have they got an emergency setting?"

The guide follows him over to the rack of bracelets and their connected computer by the bar. "I don't know, they should have."

"She fell, Mr Copper. She fell. What's the emergency code?"

"Let me see."

Pushing himself out of my arms and back onto his own feet, Alonso looks between them in confusion. "What the hell are you doing?"

"We can bring her back!"

I run over to help. Mr Copper hastily explains, "If a passenger has an accident on shore leave and they're still wearing their teleport, their molecules are automatically suspended and held in stasis. So if we can just trigger the shift—"

Resonating his sonic with a ball of tangled fibre optic cable, he presses a button. "There!"

A cloud of blue lights appears across the room. We see Astrid's face for only a moment before she fades again. "I'm falling." Her voice echoes, muffled by her absence.

"Only halfway there. Come on!"

She reappears, transparent as a ghost. "I keep falling."

I hold the cables up for him as he continues to work on them. "Feedback the molecule grid, boost it with the restoration matrix—" The computer crackles and emits a small burst of smoke. "No, no, no! Need more phase containment."

"Doctor—" Mr Copper tries.

"No! If I can just link up the surface suspension."

"Doctor, she's gone."

"I just need to override the safety. I can do this. I can do it!"

He sighs, "Doctor, let her go."

With another shout, he kicks the computer. "I can do anything!"

I rest a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Doctor. I'm sorry but I think..."

"Stop me falling."

He knows. He knew all along, it was just too difficult to accept. Some days it isn't possible to save everyone. Only a few.

A few steps closer is all he can bear. Copper follows him. "There's not enough left, the system was too badly damaged. She's just atoms, Doctor. An echo with the ghost of consciousness. She's stardust."

We leave him to say goodbye, walking towards her phantom form. "Astrid Peth, citizen of Sto. The woman who looked at the stars and dreamt of travelling. Now you can travel forever."

He points his sonic at the window. A small pane opens, letting her light stream out into space.

"You're not falling, Astrid. You're flying."

—

The Doctor and I stand in silence in the reception hall. Keeping an arm around his back, I trace circles on his back. Alonso limps in, offering me an awkward smile. "The engines have stabilised. We're holding steady till we get help and I've sent the SOS. A rescue ship will be here in twenty minutes. And they're digging out the records on Max Capricorn. Should be quite a story."

Copper doesn't seem so amused. "They'll want to talk to all of us, I suppose?" he asks gravely.

"I'd have thought so, yeah."

He shuffles over to us. "I think one or two inconvenient truths might come to light. Still, it's my own fault for faking my qualifications. And ten years in jail is better than dying."

Rickston joins us next. He sheepishly nods to me in greeting before saying, "Doctor, I never said... thank you." He hugs him. I sigh when I see no response from the Doctor. "The funny thing is, I said Max Capricorn was falling apart. Just before the crash, I sold all my shares, transferred them to his rivals. It's made me rich. What do you think of that?"

Still, no response. His vone rings, enough to bring him away to bark more demands. Copper chuckles, "Of all the people to survive, he's not the one you would have chosen, is he? But if you could choose, Doctor, if you could decide who lives and who dies... that would make you a monster."

Finally, a weak smile brightens his face. He takes three teleport bracelets from the shelf behind him and offers them out. "Mr Copper, I think you deserve one of these."

Alonso seems to realise our plan. Thinking better of stopping us, he stands to attention and salutes us. I return the gesture. "You take care of that wound, now. And