"Doctor, where and when are we?" Felicity stepped over a root that was protruding from the ground. She hadn't had time to read the TARDIS's screen before the Doctor had rushed outside in a burst of energy. He was doing that a lot lately, she wasn't entirely sure why.
"We are on a lovely little planet called Mesopotamia in the 45th century," he answered, ducking under a tree branch. "This particular planet allows no off-world visitors and I'm rather interested in why, since we're here." It was midday, but the temperature was pleasing to Felicity; the Doctor couldn't feel it either way, so it didn't much matter to him.
"Mesopotamia? The ancient Earth area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers?" She almost laughed aloud. These days, the way she talked made her sound not human.
"That exact one!" He replied, rather pleased that she knew her history, even though she always did. "They named this planet after ancient Mesopotamia because there are two, massive rivers, one on either side of the main land mass."
"A good name," she decided, as they stepped out of the trees. A huge city loomed before them, tall buildings everywhere, but not quite as tall as the ones on Earth. Every building was the color of sand, but the inhabitants accentuated it with all sorts of colors everywhere, on billboards, signs, everything. The city was apparently named Babylon. "How fitting."
"Shall we?" The Doctor headed off in the direction of the city without waiting for a reply. It wasn't like she was going to suddenly decide to go back to the TARDIS. Not a chance.
Felicity followed close behind him. She had been able to go with him for a little while now, something she thoroughly enjoyed. She had made great friends with the TARDIS for four years, but now it was time for the big stuff. She had been the Doctor's tech support, for lack of a better term. It had been fun and he'd included her whenever possible, but it was so much more exciting out here.
She'd argued with him, of course; all the time, really. She just wanted to see what he saw, but he wouldn't let her. Her parents would have disapproved, of course, just like he said, but she didn't care. He did, however. He was adamant that she wasn't allowed to put herself in danger until she was older. She sort of understood his reasoning, but she didn't have to like it. He just kept her safe until she was old enough, just in case her parents ended up trying to kill him whenever it was that she decided to leave, which was never, but they didn't know that.
They approached the city carefully, noting the technology. To Felicity, it looked like the 51st century, but there were notable differences. Namely, people's fashion sense. The Doctor seemed to ignore all of the odd clothing and funny hats. Felicity couldn't help staring at one or two of them, but they were quickly forgotten in favor of the Doctor, who was jabbering on about something or another.
"...So they all came here to this planet and settled down. The human race has only been here for a few hundred years, not bad progress at all." They walked all around the city, noting landmarks in order to find their way back to the TARDIS when it was time. Someone took to staring at the Doctor every once in a while and Felicity heard whispers about his choice of clothing, once from a lady in a yellow fluorescent bodysuit and another from a man who looked as though he was wearing a hat shaped like a fish. "They're ones to talk," she thought.
There was an infant crying and he caught Felicity's eye. She complimented the mother on her adorable baby, but the woman looked at her as if she hadn't heard the word before. Felicity mentioned this oddity to the Doctor, since she knew the TARDIS translated everything. He immediately came up with something having to do with clones and a teacup. She just shrugged her shoulders and followed him down the next street.
The red-head was inspecting a shop window when something interesting caught the Doctor's eye. There were speculative news broadcasts on multiple holoscreens about the High Council of Babylon gathering together for an emergency meeting, apparently having to do with the unknown spaceship sighting that had occurred only an hour before in the forest north of the city. "Spaceship sighting?" the Doctor said, half to himself.
"Why would they be on about that? Spaceships are everywhere these days. That's nothing special, even if they don't allow off-world visitors." Felicity approached the holoscreens, standing at the Doctor's side. A picture of what she assumed was the High Council's building flashed across the screen briefly.
"They would have dispatched the military for an unknown spaceship, unless... It was a crash," the Doctor suggested, looking at her from the corner of his eye.
"Perhaps it was. But wouldn't they have sent out people to investigate it, or see if any S.O.S. signals were broadcast while it was falling?" She crossed her arms in thought. She was almost as tall as he was now.
"That's just it!" he said, coming to a conclusion before any more evidence was presented. "There wasn't one. If there were any signals, aggressive or otherwise, they wouldn't have any need to be so cautious. So, if there is no communication at all from a crashing spacecraft-"
"-Either the crew can't communicate-"
"-Or they're already dead," he finished slowly.
"There could have been something dangerous aboard that spaceship. Something that the council doesn't want anyone to know. Maybe they don't even know," she added, a gleam in her eye. "We passed that building on the way here. Shall we investigate?"
"Oh, I think so," he replied happily, holding out an arm for her. She took it and they were off to the meeting of the High Council of Babylon.
xxxxxxxxxx
Council Head Lewis Raston was in a foul mood. His husband had banished him to the couch the previous night for no reason at all, his cat had insisted on sleeping on his head while he himself was attempting to sleep, meaning he hadn't actually slept a wink, and he woke up this morning to find that their new, noseless dog had done his business on the floor in the kitchen while they were all cozy in their beds. And to top it all off, there was now an emergency High Council meeting to discuss the urgent image that had come from the crashed spaceship just before it landed. Ridiculous.
He threw open the doors to the meeting room. It was a large hall with a tall, vaulted ceiling. It was an old Earth design, Gothic if he remembered the word right. It was a beautiful place, but the sight of it wore on the nerves of every Council member; they spent far too much time in here. Everyone else was already in attendance, he noted silently, official Council members in their official Council robes. A few turned to greet him, but the rest were silent with troubled looks on their faces, speaking quietly amongst themselves. He cleared his throat, a signal for all the members to be seated. They all moved quickly, anxious to discover what exactly this image was. He stood at his podium and nodded greetings to everyone present.
"The 302nd meeting of the High Council of Babylon is hereby called to order." Raston's voice echoed in the chamber. The rest of the council was watching him with a mixture of concern, anxiety, and curiosity. "A ship crash landed in the north forest exactly one hour and eleven minutes ago. This ship is of unknown origin. From what little was seen, the model is a mystery, possibly a private vessel. There was a group of civilians who reportedly ventured into the forest just after the ship crashed. None have returned and no others have attempted to investigate. The troubling image, I assume, has been sent to us?" He looked to one of the female council members, who nodded. "Then let us review it." He hit a button on his podium and the holoscreen flared to life. Another button and the image was played.
Everyone was silent as they watched. It was a video, only a few seconds long. The outline of two figures flashed across the screen. They looked as thought they were made of metal, tall and heavy. The Council watched the video repeatedly, but could discern little else.
"As the High Council, we must send a proper military convoy to survey the area and find survivors, if possible," one of the men said, after the video had been paused at the end. Several others nodded their agreement.
A woman piped up, "Perhaps we should exercise a bit more caution. They looked like robots, at least to me. The fact that the civilians have not returned is worrisome."
"What do you propose we should-"
A huge bang suddenly echoed through the hall. Several of the members looked around in fright. "What was that?"
Another, louder bang. It seemed to be coming from the entrance. Raston straightened himself to his full height and walked cautiously to the door. Another bang. Then a fourth. He was prepared to defend himself, if necessary.
He pulled open the door and there stood a man and a woman, roughly his height, both in odd clothing. Defend himself, indeed.
The man pulled a wallet out of his pocket and flashed the paper inside at Raston, putting it back in his pocket as he spoke. "Hello! I'm the Doctor, this is Felicity. We have heard about and are greatly interested in your rumors about a crashed spaceship." His hands were folded and he tried catching glimpses of the Council meeting over Raston's dark hair.
Raston raised an eyebrow at the pair, their faces unknown to him. "What would you know about the spaceship? You look like off-world visitors, which is not allowed."
"The Doctor is an expert on all things, terrestrial, non-terrestrial, or otherwise," Felicity said confidently. The Doctor pushed past Raston and into the inner chamber with Felicity right beside him, still arm in arm.
He waved a greeting at the Council members, who had all jumped out of their seats and were demanding to know who exactly he was and what he was doing there, barging into the middle of an important meeting. "Oi, don't all talk at once," Felicity interrupted, looking from one angry face to the next. The Doctor ran forward, up to the podium before anyone could stop him. The room instantly quieted. The council members were watching the Doctor with a mix of anger and confusion.
"There, that's better," he said, relieved at the lack of noise. "Now then. I'm the Doctor. I've heard about your crashed spaceship and I'm here to help."
The talking erupted again and Felicity sighed in frustration, standing off to the side, away from the group. They were human, just like she was, but sometimes humans were so... annoying.
The Doctor rolled his eyes and slammed his hand down on the podium. It echoed throughout the room and there was silence once more. "Thank you," he said, a bit perturbed, observing the buttons nearby which disproved his earlier message theory. "Now, I am happy to answer your questions as long as there are not any stupid ones."
The talking began again, though not nearly as loud this time. He could hear every question of course, so instead of waiting for them all to be repeated one by one, he simply answered them. "I'm the Doctor, no I don't have a medical degree, yes I'm brilliant, possibly, I'm not sure, there's nothing wrong with my bow tie, I haven't seen it yet, and why would you even ask me that question?" Felicity had piped up with her own question about the color of his socks in the middle of his sentence. She covered her mouth with her hand to keep from laughing aloud.
"Doctor," Raston said, approaching the podium. "To be contrite, we have no idea what we're dealing with. A group of civilians have disappeared while investigating this crash. And if you're really an expert, then perhaps you can help us."
"That's what I said! No one ever listens to me," he replied, looking around for a chair and finding nothing. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to see the message that you got from the spacecraft."
"How did you know we got a message?" one of the women demanded, furrowing her eyebrows.
"Because," he said, raising a finger knowingly. "The pause button on the podium is flashing." He looked to Raston, who flushed, slightly embarrassed. "May I?"
Raston nodded, gesturing to the holoscreen behind the Doctor. The play button was pressed and he turned around. The video played. Felicity had never seen the creatures before, but she'd heard about them. Terrible stories of death and destruction. The Doctor had only told her about them once, but once was enough.
"Daleks," he whispered. "They landed here." He watched the video over and over again. There was no mistaking them. They were the Daleks from his time on Earth with Prime Minister Churchill. And Amy. The white, yellow and red Daleks were missing, but he knew where they were. Or rather, he remembered where they had been. They must have split up. That sort of made sense, in a way. Three Daleks could easily plan the Pandorica while the other two were out rebuilding the species. The other three Daleks must have built or stolen another ship. The ship that these two had was the only ship with the Progenitor Device, after all. They were stuck with it in that respect. And his luck wasn't good enough to hope that it had been irreversibly damaged in the crash.
"High Council of Babylon," the Doctor said quietly, addressing the whole group. He turned to face them again, but locked his eyes on Raston instead. "I need you to look after her."
"What! Oh no you don't, I'm coming with you," she said firmly.
"They're Daleks," he said, enunciating the word as if it was a piece of trash.
"I'm not afraid of them," she lied.
"Well you should be," he said, suddenly pacing about. He made circuits around the podium, nervous and full of rage, tapping a hand against his leg repeatedly in the same pattern. He turned to Raston. "You need to evacuate your people. They have to leave this city, this whole planet if you can."
"What? Why?" one of the men demanded. "You called those things Daleks, what's a Dalek?"
"A Dalek is anger," he replied, his voice lowering in volume. "A Dalek is death and destruction and malice. A Dalek lives to kill anything that is not Dalek. All creatures not Dalek, regardless of species, must perish."
"But why?"
"Because it honestly believes they should die," Felicity answered softly, repeating what the Doctor had once told her. A few of the Council members turned to look at her, then shifted their worried gazes back to the Doctor.
"We have no way to evacuate the entire city aside from their own personal vehicles, even if we had enough time to do it. The ensuing traffic jam would just make everything worse," Raston said, running a hand nervously through his hair.
"Doctor," Felicity said, a question coming to her mind. "If the Daleks are here and they killed those people, why haven't they come to the city yet? I mean, it would be logical to assume that a settlement of some sort would be nearby, if they did see and kill the people."
The Doctor paused a moment, considering her question, then launched into an explanation. "If they did in fact kill those civilians, which I have to mention is very likely what happened, they should have been here by now, unless they... can't." He thought a moment. "You said the ship crashed. If the ship crashed, then the only plausible explanation for why it did so was that it had no power or it was damaged. No way to keep it in the sky."
"So... the Daleks have no power to their damaged ship, but that doesn't explain why they themselves aren't here," Felicity said, watching the Doctor pace about, thinking. Pacing always helped him think, but watching him gave her a headache more times than not.
He stopped, then turned to look at her. "I have to go. I need to investigate the crash site."
"You are not going without me," she said, giving him a look that said he would have to shoot her to keep her here.
"I'll do it if I have to," he warned.
"No you won't," she said, crossing her arms. He always threatened to take her back to the TARDIS and lock her in, but he never did it. She used to look so much like Amy when she did that, but recently she had been looking more and more like her own person, rather than a clone of her red-haired mother.
He was quiet for a moment. "Alright, you win, let's go."
