Row upon row upon endless row of little green chambers greet them in the "Intensive Care Unit".
The Doctor opens one of the units and stares, horrified, at the boil- and sore-covered man looking pathetically back at him. Rose calls it "disgusting", and the Doctor finds it hard to disagree.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he says softly to the man as he closes the door. He moves down the line a bit and opens another. This one is a woman, just as infected as the man.
Every disease in the world, he explains to Rose. Safe enough, so long as they aren't touched, but plague carriers, every one of them. Thousands of them. Born sick. Created sick. Meant to be sick. "No wonder the Sisters have got a cure for everything," he says. "They've built the ultimate research laboratory."
Novice Hame appears then, trying to justify this horror. Greater cause... Mankind needed us... They're only flesh... Think of those saved... All of the standard excuses that have been used before on a thousand worlds before this one where the slaughter of innocents has been used to save other innocents.
"If they live because of this, then life is worthless," he insists.
"But who are you to decide that?"
"I'm the Doctor," he says menacingly. "And if you don't like it... if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn't one. It stops with me." The last of the Time Lords. The Lonely God. The Oncoming Storm.
Rose breaks in to ask if the city knows what they do, and suddenly, things click into place. He holds up a hand to cut Hame off and asks her, quite calmly, what they have done to Rose.
When the Novice protests, he steps forward, teeth clenched in the effort to keep his voice soft and even. "I'm being very, very calm. You wanna beware of that - very, very calm. And the only reason I'm being so very, very calm is that the brain is a delicate thing. Whatever you've done to Rose's head, I want it reversed. These people are dying, and Rose would care."
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The Doctor opens one of the units and stares, horrified, at the boil- and sore-covered man looking pathetically back at him. Rose calls it "disgusting", and the Doctor finds it hard to disagree.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he says softly to the man as he closes the door. He moves down the line a bit and opens another. This one is a woman, just as infected as the man.
Every disease in the world, he explains to Rose. Safe enough, so long as they aren't touched, but plague carriers, every one of them. Thousands of them. Born sick. Created sick. Meant to be sick. "No wonder the Sisters have got a cure for everything," he says. "They've built the ultimate research laboratory."
Novice Hame appears then, trying to justify this horror. Greater cause... Mankind needed us... They're only flesh... Think of those saved... All of the standard excuses that have been used before on a thousand worlds before this one where the slaughter of innocents has been used to save other innocents.
"If they live because of this, then life is worthless," he insists.
"But who are you to decide that?"
"I'm the Doctor," he says menacingly. "And if you don't like it... if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn't one. It stops with me." The last of the Time Lords. The Lonely God. The Oncoming Storm.
Rose breaks in to ask if the city knows what they do, and suddenly, things click into place. He holds up a hand to cut Hame off and asks her, quite calmly, what they have done to Rose.
When the Novice protests, he steps forward, teeth clenched in the effort to keep his voice soft and even. "I'm being very, very calm. You wanna beware of that - very, very calm. And the only reason I'm being so very, very calm is that the brain is a delicate thing. Whatever you've done to Rose's head, I want it reversed. These people are dying, and Rose would care."