taxonomites | 009: Hunting for the Hunter [Visual]

It had been a long and difficult night, but, at nine o'clock the next morning, Martha opened her surgery as usual. Despite the relatively low numbers of prisoners, she always had more than enough patients to keep her occupied. She treated Extras for coughs and colds and broken limbs and stomach bugs. She gave the young Extras their childhood inoculations. And, now, she treated them for vampire bites.

They didn't have vampires in her world, but her time on the TARDIS and her experiences at UNIT had taught Martha to trust her instincts and, occasionally, to improvise when treating non human patients or extraterrestrial illnesses. (There were no medical text books available for her line of work. There were just a few determined individuals - like Martha, like Doctor Elizabeth Shaw at Cambridge, like the Torchwood team - who always tried to do the best for their patients, no matter who or what they were.) The marks on the neck of the Extra that Fitz had rescued were real bite marks. The attacker had left bruises as well as bloody holes, not just the twin pinpricks that you saw in horror movies.

The Extra that had taken a seat in front of her desk - marched there by an Extra that, if asked, Martha would have guessed to be a concerned partner - had the same sort of wound. Which meant that this wasn't an isolated incident.

She cleaned and dressed the wound, prescribing lots of rest and fluid for the patient. (And he was a patient, whether he was programmed to be one of not. In fact, the idea that the aliens were programming illnesses and injuries to give her something to do was physically sickening. But she had to treat them. Leaving them would have been barbaric.) Then she washed the blood off her hands and picked up her tablet.

"It looks like last night's attack wasn't an isolated incident," she informed the people of the city, "I had an Extra with exactly the same bite marks in here this morning."

After a brief pause to give them a chance to digest that information, she carried on.

"Which means we've got two options. Either the aliens have created a vampire Extra to keep us on our toes ... or it's one of us."

She wasn't keen on either option.

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"It's okay. I guess it's better to be safe first." Elena gave her a smile at that, she understood anyway. "I'm Elena."

"I'm Martha Jones," she replied with a smile. The prisoners in Taxon spent a lot of time together and relied on each other a great deal, but the small details - details about their lives at home and the worlds that they came from - were often neglected in favour of the big Taxon picture. "I'm one of Taxon's doctors."

"I guess I know where to come if anything happens. I mean if I cut myself or something, not this." Or with this, but she seriously hoped not.

"You can come to me with anything," Martha corrected with a smile, "I can treat cuts and bruises, but sometimes what people really need is to talk to someone who's been in Taxon for a while. I know as much about this place as anyone."

And more about aliens and the worlds beyond the Earth than most.

"I'll remember that. Thanks." And Elena probably would because even though here she wanted to be open with Jenna there were still probably things that would be hard to do that with.

"You're welcome." It was her job. And it was just as important - if not more important - in Taxon was it was on Earth. "But, in the meantime, I should get back to work.”

Who knew when the next vampire victim would appear?

009: Hunting for the Hunter [Visual]

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