Into The Dalek
Disclaimer: I think we all get the idea by now. If anyone's still in doubt, see the previous story for confirmation.
Chapter 1: The Blue And The Pink
It had all been so well prepared. They'd set out on a quick hit and run attack that would destroy a supply ship heading for the enemy fleet. But the moment they'd opened fire, they'd discovered they'd been led into an ambush. The whole squad had scattered and tried to get away, but they were facing the universe's most insane war machine and no escape route had been left unchecked.
As the ship shook and warning lights lit up across the consoles, Journey Blue tried desperately to steer the ship with one hand and press her hand to her brother's wound with the other. "Stay with me." She pleaded, guiding his hand back up, to keep the blood in.
She flew the ship deeper and deeper into the asteroid field, in the hope of shaking their pursuers. She got on the radio. "Aristotle, this is Wasp Delta, do you hear me? Stay with me, Kai. Stay with me, please. Aristotle! We have been hit. Major damage. Aristotle!"
At this point, the navigational computer finally went out. She flew on blindly, with only the view out the window to go on. But as she rounded one of the larger rocks, she swore loudly. The enemy ship had found a clear route through the field and flew in ahead of her. She promptly swung the stick to the side and shot off in the opposite direction, as plasma bolts slammed into asteroids around her.
From her radio, the voices of her pursuers began to filter through. "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
She weaved between asteroids, trying desperately to keep at least one between her and them, but it was to no avail. A shot hit a key thruster, sending the ship into an uncontrollable spin. "I'm sorry." She sobbed, as she watched the nearest asteroid screaming closer. The ship struck and she felt the air being pulled from her lungs as the ship de-pressurised. Within the space of a second, she'd blacked out.
The room slowly came into focus. The blurred outline of a brass rimmed console appeared above her. She sat up looked around a large circular room, lined with bookshelves and the hum of machinery all around her. In the centre a man in a black suit was adjusting a hexagonal control panel.
"You'll probably feel a bit sick." He said. "Please, don't be."
Journey looked around, but saw no sign of Kai. She grabbed her gun. "Where's my brother?"
"Hello I'm the Doctor." Unconcerned by the gun being pointed at him, he put down the cardboard containers he was holding and offered her a hand.
But she didn't trust the man. He didn't appear armed but she never trusted on appearances. "He was right beside me. What did you do with him?" She shouted, as she swept the room for anyone else.
"I materialised a time capsule exactly round you and saved your life one second before your ship exploded, but do please keep crying." Said the Doctor.
"My brother just died!" She backed down a staircase and scanned the under levels.
"His sister didn't. You're very welcome." He shrugged. "Put the gun down."
"Or what?"
"You might shoot me. Then where would you be."
"In charge of your vessel." She snarled.
"You'd starve to death finding the light switch."
Journey glanced at the console, keeping the man in sight. She recognised none of the controls, and this ship was clearly much more powerful than anything she'd flown before.
"Who are you?" Said the Doctor.
"I'm Lieutenant Journey Blue of the Combined Galactic Resistance. I demand you take me back to my command ship, the Aristotle, which is currently located..."
"No, not like that." The Doctor cut her off.
"You will take me back to my ship, which is located..."
"No. Do it properly now. Come on."
Journey took a deep breath and lowered her gun. "Will you take me back to my ship... please."
The Doctor nodded and had a look at a scanner screen. "The Aristotle's the big one, parked in the asteroids, right?"
Her eyes widened when she saw the exact coordinates on screen. "It's shielded."
"More or less." He hit some controls and the TARDIS made a short hop to the ship. He looked over to see his passenger with tears streaming down her cheeks, despite her hard exterior. "Dry your eyes, Journey Blue. Crying's for civilians. It's how we communicate with you lot." As the TARDIS came to a halt, he pulled the doors open.
The chamber he found himself in gave all the indications of a hidden base. Containers of supplies were stacked here and there. The walkways between them were crowded with soldiers, moving around and sitting practically on top or each other when they needed to take the weight off their feet.
Behind him, Journey was looking at the TARDIS from several different angles. Now that she'd got her bearings, she was being much more civil with him. "It's smaller on the outside."
"It's much more impressive when you go the other way. Trust me." He took a look at a symbol on the wall. "This isn't a battleship. Medical insignia. It's a hospital."
"We don't need hospitals now." Said a new voice. The Doctor looked round to see a grey haired man, flanked by two guards. "The Daleks leave no wounded. And we take no prisoners."
The Doctor took a look at the soldiers and didn't like what he was implying. "I saved your friend here, if that's in any way relevant."
"It's true sir, he did." Said Journey.
"Thank you." The man shrugged.
"You're welcome, I wish I could have done more."
"Than maybe you should." The man frowned, but then shifted back to his neutral expression. "But you did save Journey. For that I'm grateful."
"Good."
"However, the security on this base is absolute. So I'm still going to have to kill you."
The Doctor frowned. "It's a roller coaster with you, isn't it?"
"Shoot him, bag him and throw him outside."
"No, wait!" Journey hurried between him and the guards."
"I'm sorry. He might be a duplicate."
"He's a doctor. And we have a patient."
Two things had quickly become clear to Journey as they led the Doctor through the base. The first was that he had been a soldier at some point, the way he behaved gave it away. The second was that he outright hated anything military.
"So why does a hospital need a Doctor?" He was saying sarcastically.
"You don't like us. Do you?" She said.
"You don't need to be liked. You have all the guns." As they passed by a huge glass cylinder with rows of benches along each side, he gasped and went for a closer look. "Wow, a moleculon nanoscaler!"
"You know what it does then?"
"It miniaturises living matter. What's the medical application, though? Do you use it to shrink the surgeons so they can climb inside the patients?"
"Exactly." Said the general, who'd identified himself as Morgan."
"Fantastic idea for a film. Terrible idea for a proctologist. Are you going to miniaturise me?"
"You're a doctor, aren't you?" Morgan unlocked a door to his left. "And this is your patient."
The Doctor took a look and paled. "No, you can't put me in there."
Inside, was a Dalek, chained up in several places and with little wires connecting it to various scanners. It was battle scarred and little patches of rust lined its casing.
Danny Pink called the assembled troops to attention. "Atten-shun. Look at you lot. I've never seen such a miserable bunch! What are you, children?"
"Yes sir." Said a year 8.
Danny leaned down. "Do you think you're funny, Fleming?"
"Yes sir." Said Fleming,
Danny smiled. "Yeah, me too." At this point, the bell signalled the end of lunch. "Alright, dismissed!"
The Coal Hill Cadets jogged away, passing by Miss Oswald as they went, who gave him a smile as a way of saying hello. He smiled back, but then hurriedly looked away so it wouldn't look like he was staring at her. Someone like her probably wouldn't be interested in him anyway.
"Just ask her for a drink" Said a year 11, glancing up from her phone.
"What?" Said Danny.
"I heard she got dumped recently. Ran off with her boyfriend at Christmas, then he abandoned her in Glasgow a week later. Best time to grab her."
"And where have you heard these roumers from?"
"Dunno." She shrugged.
"Then please keep your speculation to yourself."
"Sorry sir."
A few minutes later, having had a brief shower and pulled his shirt and tie back on, Danny went to the reception to check his timetable for changes.
"Get up to much this weekend?" Said the secretary.
Danny thought. He wasn't sitting idle at home, but routine maintenance and food shopping didn't sound interesting. "Nothing much. Just did some reading."
"I bet you were reading." The secretary grinned at him, as if trying to imply something.
"I was, yeah." Said Danny.
"I bet you were." In a very nudge nudge, wink wink sort of way. Was exactly was she trying to imply?
"Well, yeah. I was. Nothing special."
"Of course. I know your type."
"You wish." Said a year 9, leaning over the counter.
"Be quiet, Courtney." Hissed the secretary.
He had a year 8 class to teach next. The lesson went fine, until the very end, when he was assigning homework. "So that's all the questions on page 32, except the last one, and then everything on page 33. All that in for Thursday. Any questions?"
Flemming put his hand up. "Have you ever killed anyone sir?"
The rest of the class groaned and looked away, but Danny had a well worn response to that question. "I was a soldier. I've been in firefights with other soldiers. Not all of them were on our side. That's all I'm going to say. And please think of something else to ask."
"OK." Said Flemming. "Have you ever killed someone who wasn't a soldier?"
Danny suddenly became very interested in his notes. "Like I was saying." He said, very steadily. "So that's all the questions on page 32, except the last one, and then everything on page 33. All that in for Thursday. Is everyone clear?"
"Yes sir." Said the class and filed out. Even Flemming realised that he may have gone a bit too far when he saw a lone tear run down Mr Pink's cheek.
Finally, the end of the day came, and Danny went to retrieve his coat from the staff room. It was there that he found Miss Oswald talking to the head about something. "Fine, I'll take that class and then, they can do some of the test."
"That's fine." He said. "Oh, Clara, you've not met Danny Pink yet? New fella, maths. Danny? Clara Oswald. English."
Danny shook her hand. He'd only started a week ago and had been awkwardly avoiding her. He was thrown a bit of a loop here.
"You watch yourself around him. Bit of a lady killer. But always denies it." The head grinned.
"I'm not a lady killer." He said, not sure where he'd got this reputation.
"See what I mean? Oh, Beth, could I have a word?" The head went to talk to Beth, leaving them there.
"Was it you outside with the soldiery thing?" She said.
"Yeah, the Coal Hill Cadets. Bit of fun."
"What, teaching them to shoot people?"
"There's more to modern soldiery than that."
"What you shoot people and cry about it afterwards?" Clara had intended that as a bit of friendly banter. The awkward look he gave told her she may have said something wrong. "Something the matter?"
"Nothing, no. Sorry, no, nothing. I just. I didn't think they'd say anything, that's all." Danny said.
"Sorry?"
"Have they told everyone?"
"No, no, no. As far as I know, nobody has told anybody anything. What are you talking about?"
"Why did you just say the crying thing?"
"I was being funny."
"Why?"
"I just do that."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Danny was sure that Clara didn't mean anything by it, but the conversation had got too awkward. "Anyway I, er, I've left some stuff in my class."
"Okay, see you."
"See you."
But as he turned to go, she got his attention again. "Er, are you going to the, er, leaving thing tonight for Cathy?"
"Um..."
Two minutes later, Danny sat slumped on his desk, regretting how he'd handled that situation and reciting what he should have said to himself. "Yeah. I wasn't going, but I am now, because you're going to be there, and suddenly it seems like the best idea ever." Instead of "No, I'm not."
Clara had said alright and they'd wished each other good night, only for her to blurt out, "Change your mind? 'cos I'm going. I could give you a lift."
"Actually, now that you mention it, seems like the best plan ever. Thank you." Danny said, wishing he hadn't gone with "Nah, I've got some reading."
"Maybe some other time then?" Clara had said.
"Thank you!" He shouted to the empty classroom and banged his head lightly on the desk, making a low thump thump.
"Is that you, or the desk?" Said Clara.
He looked up to see her stood in the doorway. "How long have you been there?"
"Longer than you'd like." She grinned.
"Ok."
"Are you going to look that terrified when you take me out for a drink?"
Danny started, was it really that simple? "I-I promise I won't."
"Play your cards right and you might." Clara grinned.
Clara's gran had once told her that if he's too nervous to ask you out, it can only help if you ask him. Pleased by how that had gone, Clara made her way down to the supply room to drop some things off. The moment she turned on the light, she found a cardboard tray with two coffee cups an inch in front of her eyes. The hand holding it was attached to the Doctor. "And where have you been?"
"You sent me for coffee." He said.
"Three weeks ago. In Glasgow."
The Doctor frowned. "Three weeks? That's a long time."
Clara nodded. "Glasgow. That's dead in a ditch."
"I got distracted. It's not my fault."
"By what?"
"I can always find something. Come on."
Clara instinctively followed him into the TARDIS, which just fit in the back of the cupboard.
"Why are you smiling?" Said the Doctor.
"I wasn't. Was I?"
"I'd almost say you were in love, but to be honest..."
"What?"
"You're not a young woman any more."
"Yes I am!"
"You don't look it."
"I do look it!"
"Oh, that's right, keep your spirits up, Clara, Clara, Clara, Clara. Clara, Clara. Clara, Clara." He sat down on the steps, looking disturbed about something. Clara felt her irritation abate somewhat. "I need something from you. I need the truth."
She sat down next to him. "Ok. Right. What's... You're scared."
"I'm terrified."
"Of what?"
He sighed. "The answer to my next question, which must be honest and cold and considered, without kindness or restraint. Clara, be my pal and tell me, am I a good man?"
Clara thought for a moment. "I don't know."
"Neither do I." The Doctor got up and keyed in some coordinates on the navigation console. The engines powered up.
"Hold on, I've got plans!" Said Clara.
"I need you."
Clara took a breath. It was too late to explain anyway. She just hoped he wouldn't drop her in the middle of next week again. "Right. Where are we going?"
"Into darkness."
"So what's brought all this on?" Said Clara.
And so the Doctor explained...
"DOCTOR." Said the Dalek.
"How do you know my name?" He said shortly.
"He doesn't." Said Morgan. "We promised him medical assistance."
"ARE YOU MY DOCTOR?"
"We found it floating in space." Said Journey.
"We thought it was deactivated, so we tried to disassemble it." Said Morgan.
"You didn't realise there was a creature inside?" Said the Doctor, not sure whether to be annoyed at the military's reliance on brute force when it was a Dalek they were dealing with.
"Not till it started screaming." Said Journey.
"HELP ME." Said the Dalek.
"Why should I do that? Why would any living creature help you?"
"DALEKS WILL DIE."
"Die all you want. Not my problem." The Doctor turned to go. He may have been upset to see whole fleets of these creatures blown up once, but seeing them decimating Gallifrey a second time had reminded him why he fought them.
"DALEKS MUST BE DESTROYED!"
The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Daleks must be de... What did you just say?"
"ALL DALEKS MUST DIE. I WILL DESTROY THE DALEKS! DESTROY THE DALEKS! DESTROY THE DALEKS!"