Chapter 4: The Final Survivors.
"I killed her." The Doctor gasped.
"I'm sorry." Said Van Statten.
The Doctor wheeled round on the American. "I promised to protect her. She's only here 'cos of me. And you say you're sorry? I could have killed that Dalek in its cell. You stopped me!"
"It was the prize of my collection!" Van Statten cried.
"COLLECTION? WAS IT WORTH IT? WORTH ALL THOSE MENS' DEATHS? WORTH ROSE?" The Doctor roared. "Let me tell you something! Mankind goes into space to explore, to be part of something greater!"
"Exactly! I wanted to touch the stars!"
"You just want to drag the stars down here! Underneath tons of concrete! And sand! And dirt! And slap a price tag on 'em! You're about as far from the stars as you can get!" He took a breath, staring at the table. "And you took her down with you. She was 19 years old."
In all the time she'd known Van Statten, Goddard didn't think she'd seen him so shaken.
Rose had screwed her eyes up in anticipation. It took a few seconds after the Dalek had fired to realise that she was still alive.
Very slowly, she opened her eyes. The Dalek was stood before her, staring motionless at her. She looked back at the wall, where a small hole was burning in the concrete.
"What are you waiting for?" She shouted at the Dalek.
"I AM ARMED. I WILL KILL YOU." It said, but never fired its weapon.
Rose decided to take this inactivity as a chance to shout at it. "Those people are dead because of you!"
"THEY ARE DEAD BECAUSE OF US!"
Rose was now trembling with horror as well as fear. "And now what, you're gonna kill me?"
"I FEEL YOUR FEAR."
"What do you expect?"
The Dalek shook all over. "DALEKS DO NOT FEAR! MUST NOT FEAR!" It fired, blasting another hole in the concrete. It fired again, striking the door a foot to the right of the girl. Somehow, it was having trouble killing her. That, at least was a good thing.
"YOU GAVE ME LIFE! WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU GIVEN ME? I AM CONTAMINATED!"
Adam had thought that a man who's just had a brush with death might be welcomed back with relief. Instead, the moment the lift doors opened, he was met by a furious Doctor.
"You were quick on your feet!" He shouted.
"I wasn't the one who sealed the vault!" Adam shouted back.
Their argument was interrupted as the Dalek suddenly appeared on the security screen. "OPEN THE VAULT OR ROSE TYLER DIES." The Doctor looked over. Rose was stood in front of it, staying in its line of fire as instructed.
"Rose!" He could not remember when he'd last felt so relieved. "You're alive!"
"OPEN THE DOOR!" The Dalek repeated.
"Don't do it!" Rose shouted.
The Dalek moved forward so it could jam its gun in her back. "WHAT USE ARE EMOTIONS IF YOU CAN'T SAVE THE WOMAN YOU LOVE?" It said.
The Doctor gulped. He looked over to the others for an opinion. But none of them seemed brave enough to cross him when Rose Tyler was involved. This was his decision alone.
He looked down at the computer. The Dalek had restored power to the section, though it seemed unable to open the bulkhead. "I killed her once." He said finally. "I can't do it again." He hit a button and the door came open.
"MOVE!" Shouted The Dalek.
Rose moved in front of it. She had no hope of getting away so she tried to keep close to the Dalek.
Having seen this creature manipulate its way out of its cell and kill 200 people in its rampage, she had reason to be afraid of her position. She couldn't be certain whether this Dalek was keeping her alive because of contamination or because it hoped she'd be useful later. She could only hope that this contamination would deepen, and quickly.
Van Statten had regained his composure. "Great! You bleeding heart! Now what're we gonna do?" He roared.
"Kill it when it gets here!" Piped up Adam.
"Our guns are useless, and the alien weapons are in the vault." Said Goddard.
"Only the catalogued ones." Said Adam.
In his workshop, Adam pulled a large steel bin from a cupboard. Within, a variety of alien weapons had been piled, in various shapes and sizes.
The Doctor picked up a large silvery weapon, with glowing blue lights running along it. He promptly tossed it over his shoulder. "Broken." He said. Horrified, Adam went to pick it up and inspect for dents. He was forced to duck back as the Doctor threw another weapon aside to join the first declaring it broken too. He decided not to confront the time lord.
"Mr Van Statten wipes all his staff's memories when they leave." Adam started to explain.
"Hairdryer." Said the Doctor, tossing another device aside.
"I kept these here in case I ever needed to, you know, fight my way out." Adam continued.
The Doctor turned a circular device over in his hands. "What, you in a fight?"
"I could you know!"
"What're you gonna do, chuck your A levels at them?" He set the circular device aside, deeming it too week. Looking back into the bin, he grinned in delight. He picked up a large device, resembling a space-age bazooka. It could smash a hole in the Hoover Dam if set to maximum power. Even half power, would smash the Dalek to bits, and bring an end to the filth of the universe.
Rose stood in the lift, watching as the numbers counted down to zero. Next to her, the Dalek was twitching. Somehow, the cold metallic shell was showing feelings of indecisiveness. She'd been nervous to talk to it up to this point in case she provoked it, but now she sensed a chance. "You don't have to kill them. You didn't kill me."
"BUT WHY?" Said the Dalek. "WHY ARE YOU ALIVE?"
Rose thought it best not to answer.
Van Statten was stood by the lift door with a gun, trying to adopt a dramatic pose. But even as he'd taken position, he'd started to tremble. As the numbers counted down, he began to shake and hints of terror worked their way over his previously unmoving facade.
As the doors opened, fright got the better of him. He dropped the gun and scrambled backwards.
"Don't do anything!" Shouted Rose. "It's starting to question itself."
"VAN STATTEN, YOU TORTURED ME! WHY?"
"I-I don't know" He stammered. "I thought, if we could get through to you, if we could find out about you, if we could mend you, I just wanted make you better. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! I just wanted you to talk!"
"THEN HEAR ME TALK NOW! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
"Don't do it, don't kill him!" Cried Rose.
The Dalek's eyestalk swung round to look at her.
"You don't have to do this anymore." She pleaded. "There must be something else, not just killing. What else is there?"
The Dalek looked at the woman who was offering hope. It swung round to look at the man who had brought it incredible pain. It swung round again to look at Rose.
"I WANT FREEDOM." It said finally.
The humans were still unable to open the helipad doors. The Dalek decided to ignore them and glided into the hanger, with Rose close behind.
It blasted a hole in the concrete wall and a narrow shaft of sunlight flooded down to shine upon its eyestalk.
"You're out, you made it." Said Rose. "I never thought I'd feel the sunlight again."
"HOW DOES IT FEEL?" Said the Dalek. A whole variety of confusing feelings were flowing through it. It got the feeling that a direct look would provide a clearer picture.
Rose heard a series of clicks and whirs from within the Dalek. Seconds later, several whole sections of its casing hinged and swivelled away, revealing the Dalek creature itself, wired into its life support system.
The creature was by all accounts, a hideous, slimy thing, with a brain almost spilling from its head. A dozen or so tentacles were wrapped round one control or another. Nonetheless, Rose couldn't help feeling sorry for this poor mutilated creature, which had gone all its life able to feel nothing but hatred for everything around it. Hatred even for its own existence. And only now could it feel something more. The creature's single eye looked almost sad as it gazed up at a light it had never seen before.
"Out of the way!" Roared the Doctor. She spun round to see him brandishing a gun at the two of them, shaking with hatred for the Dalek. "Rose, get out the way now!"
"No. 'cos I won't let you do this." She said.
"Rose, that thing killed hundreds of people!" He shouted.
"It's not the one pointing the gun at me."
"Rose, I have to do this. Or my people, for what they died for!"
"But look at it!" She stood aside.
The Doctor looked at the little creature as it looked sadly up at the sun.
"What's it doing?" He said.
"Gazing at the sunlight."
"But it can't..."
"It couldn't kill Van Statten. It couldn't kill me 'cos its changing. What about you, Doctor? What're you changing into?"
The Doctor looked at the sad, pathetic creature before him. He looked down at the massive gun he was holding, and promptly threw it on the floor. "I couldn't... I wasn't... Oh Rose. They're all dead."
"Why do we... survive?" Groaned The Dalek.
"I don't know." He replied.
"I am the... last of the... Daleks."
"You're not even that. Rose did more than regenerate you. You've absorbed her DNA. You're changing."
"Into... what?"
"... Something new."
"Isn't that better?" Said Rose.
"Not for a Dalek."
"I can... feel. So many... ideas. So... much darkness. Rose... give me orders! Order me to, die."
Rose looked back and forth. Even the Doctor was unsure how to respond. "I can't." She said.
"This is not life." It insisted. "This is... sickness. I shall not be like you! Order my destruction! Obey! Obey!"
"Do it." She said at last.
"Are... you frightened... Rose... Tyler?" It said.
"Yeah."
"Exxxtterrmiiiinaatte!" It said, triumphantly.
Rose got the sense that she should move away from it. She rushed over to by the Doctor and watched as the casing closed itself up. The Dalek had activated its self-destruct. It hovered off the ground. The globes on its skirts detached from its body and flew out to form a sphere around it, glowing with energy. Finally with a loud blast, the creature imploded, leaving nothing but dust.
Goddard nodded to the soldiers stood behind Van Statten. Two of them grabbed him and dragged him away.
"What are you doing!" He demanded.
"200 personnel dead and all because of you, sir." She replied. "Take him away and wipe his memory."
"You can't do this to me! I'm Henry Van Statten!"
"And by tonight, Henry Van Statten will be a brainless guy living on the streets of San Fransisco. San Diago? Sacremento?" She turned away. "Somewhere beginning with s."
The Doctor placed his hand, sadly, on the TARDIS. "Little piece of home. Better than nothing."
"Is that it then?" Rose said consolingly. "The end of the time war."
"Yeah." Said the Doctor. "I win."
"The Dalek survived. Maybe some of your people did too."
"I'd know." He tapped his temple. "In here. Feels like there's no-one."
"Well. Good thing I'm not going anywhere."
Adam came running up. "They're closing down the base. Van Statten's disappeared. Goddard says they're filling this place full of cement, like it never excised." He sighed. "I guess I'll have to go home."
"Next flight to Heathrow leaves at 1500 hours." Said the Doctor.
"Adam was saying he wanted to see the stars." Said Rose.
Catching Rose's implication, the Doctor looked the man up and down and shrugged. "Tell him to go stand outside."
"He's all on his own. And he did help us." She said.
"He left you down there."
"So did you."
Adam was confused. "What are you two talking about, we have to go!"
"This wouldn't be because he's pretty?" Said the Doctor.
"Hadn't noticed." She replied.
"On your own head." He sighed.
Adam watched, curious, as the two of them stepped into a Police Box by the wall.
"She wasn't joking about that concrete you know. We're gonna get sealed in! Doctor! Rose?"
He peeked in through the door. Thinking it led into another room, he followed them in. Just as the TARDIS engines whirred into life.
Author's notes: Some adjustments here. Most notably, Van Statten making an attempt at a last stand. It baffled me a bit that he appears to be standing by the doors, unarmed, waiting for the Dalek to kill him in the broadcast episode.
Next time: The Long Game.
